A Number of Injured as Rough Air Hits Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

Several people have been injured after a Delta flight from LA to Sydney, Australia encountered significant turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson stated. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated five individuals, and took three of them to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and migraines. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of planes encountering severe turbulence, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

There were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official said, adding that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they got a call just only 180 seconds before the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is getting more frequent - and often stronger.

During the past year, 25 people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "considerable" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying short but intense period of extreme instability. A traveler passed away and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are approximately five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet going through unstable air exert in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As climate change modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are expected to heighten the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.