Multiple Affected as Turbulence Strikes Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured when a Delta Airlines aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five patients, and transferred three of them to the hospital with relatively minor issues that included spinal discomfort and headaches. The injured spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of commercial jets being hit by severe turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative added, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they were alerted just only 180 seconds prior to the plane landed, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more common - and more severe.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "significant" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a frightening brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler lost their life and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while occurrences of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are approximately five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft going through unstable air apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change alters the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to increase the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.