A Number of Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines jet from LA to Sydney encountered rough air this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "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 stated they treated five patients, and transferred three of them to the hospital with relatively minor issues that included spinal discomfort and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of aircraft encountering severe turbulence, with experts pointing out that global warming is a key driver.

There were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official noted, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they were alerted just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is growing more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

During the past year, 25 people were injured when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an precautionary landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a frightening five seconds of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are approximately 5,000 incidents of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.

Intense turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a aircraft going through rough air masses apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As a changing climate alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.