Multiple Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Hits A Delta Airlines Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt following a Delta jet originating in LA to Sydney encountered rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official stated. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they treated a total of five people, and transferred three to the hospital with relatively minor issues that such as pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their thirties and seventies.

This marks the newest example of commercial jets encountering severe turbulence, with researchers saying that global warming is a major factor.

On board were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative added, adding that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they were alerted just three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more common - and more severe.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening brief five-second period of extreme instability. An individual lost their life and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million flights that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the sudden jolts of a jet experiencing unstable air generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are likely to heighten the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.