Multiple Hurt as Rough Air Hits Delta Flight into Sydney

Several people have been injured when a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson informed. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they assessed five individuals, and transported three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included spinal discomfort and head pain. Those affected were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the newest example of planes experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that climate change is a key driver.

The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson noted, stating that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Emergency responders reported they received a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

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

In the previous year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying five seconds of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while cases of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.

Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a total of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur globally.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a plane going through rough air masses generate greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.

As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, experts warn that air travel could become more turbulent: warming trends and altered air currents in the jet stream level are likely to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.