Multiple Injured as Rough Air Impacts Delta Flight Arriving in Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official stated. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

Emergency medical services said they evaluated five patients, and transported three to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that such as back pain and migraines. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of commercial jets being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with experts indicating that global warming is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the official said, stating that the plane landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Paramedics said they got a call just three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is becoming more frequent - and more severe.

Last year, two dozen individuals were hurt when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, those on board on a certain international flight went through a terrifying short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a sum of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a aircraft passing through rough air masses exert greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.

As climate change modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become bumpier: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are expected to heighten the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.