An airline passenger has described her terror and ultimate relief after the plane she was on was hit by lightning and forced to return to Melbourne Airport.

Key points: A Tigerair flight was forced to return to Melbourne after being hit by lightning

A Tigerair flight was forced to return to Melbourne after being hit by lightning Passenger says there was a "big boom" about 10 minutes into flight

Passenger says there was a "big boom" about 10 minutes into flight Flight TT471 circled the skies before landing back in Melbourne

South Australian woman Karen Juniper said she was aboard Tigerair flight TT471 from Melbourne to Adelaide, which took off on Thursday evening.

"We were bouncing all over the place," she said.

"About 10 minutes in, there was a big flash out on the wing, the left-hand side, and a big boom.

"We continued on probably for another five minutes.

"Then the captain [announced] we've had a heavy strike and we're going to have to make a sudden turn back to the airport which I think we were all pretty happy about."

But she said the plane continued to circle the skies for about 45 minutes before it could land, with its lights dimmed and some passengers in tears.

"It was rough, quite a few very distressed passengers as you can imagine, lots of sick bags being passed around," Ms Juniper said.

"It's probably [something] that happens more often than we'd know about. But being amongst it, it's a scary event.

"People around us, the children, they were in tears and the woman next to me was head down, holding onto the seat in front.

"The flight attendant who walked out at the end of the night with us did say to us the captain was really worried."

Aftermath was 'very poorly managed'

Ms Juniper said while passengers were thankful to be back on the tarmac, many felt abandoned.

"There wasn't any further information coming from the cockpit," she said.

"There was a little old lady, probably 80, and she was really bewildered.

"She didn't have a smart phone to find another flight and find a hotel room for the night.

"It was very, very, very poorly managed. I don't know the answer… but probably having ground staff to support these people would be a really good start.

A Tigerair Australia spokesperson confirmed the plane was struck by lightning during the flight.

"As a precautionary safety measure, the captain diverted back to Melbourne and the aircraft landed without incident," a statement read.

"The aircraft has been inspected and cleared for service by engineers and is back in operation today."