SYDNEY, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- An AirAsia flight that was forced to return to Perth airport was plummeting at a rate of 11 meters per second, an interim report has found recently.

Flight QZ535 departed Perth in Western Australia (WA) bound for Bali in Indonesia on Oct. 15 but turned back 30 minutes after taking off as the cabin lost pressure and the plane fell from a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet to 10,000 feet.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report found that flight crew noticed a pressurisation fault "appear then disappear" shortly after take-off.

After reaching cruising altitude, the problem persisted and the pilot instructed cabin crew they would conduct an immediate emergency descent to 10,000 feet.

"Shortly after, the cabin crew manager reported to the flight crew that the emergency oxygen masks in the cabin were not deployed and the flight crew then manually deployed them," the report said.

"The cabin crew reported that they secured the cabin and instructed the passengers in accordance with their emergency descent procedures."

The interim report made no comment on how the cabin crew's handling of the incident which was heavily criticized following the incident.

Passengers said the crew exacerbated the ordeal with a panicked response.

Perth woman Leah told Australian media following the incident that she thought she was going to die.

"I actually picked up my phone and sent a text message to my family, just hoping that they would get it," she said.

"We were all pretty much saying goodbye to each other. It was really upsetting.

"The masks fell down and everybody started panicking. Nobody told us what was going on."

The ATSB found that a faulty cabin pressure controller was responsible. The final report will be released in May 2018.