A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Strikes Delta Flight Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured following a Delta Airlines jet originating in LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five patients, and transported three to the hospital with minor injuries that comprised pain in the back and migraines. The injured were between their thirties and seventies.

This marks the most recent case of commercial jets being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the representative noted, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Paramedics reported they received a call just three minutes prior to the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.

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

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of over 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft going through unstable air exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As climate change shifts atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that air travel could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to increase the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.