Several Affected as Rough Air Hits Delta Plane Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

Local paramedics stated they treated a total of five people, and transported three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and migraines. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that climate change is a major factor.

There were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the representative added, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, 25 people were injured when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening five seconds of severe turbulence. An individual died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while occurrences of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted around the world.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing unstable air generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As a changing climate alters weather patterns, researchers alert that flying could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are projected to boost the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.