Several Hurt as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight into Sydney

Several people have been injured following a Delta jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced significant turbulence this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Local paramedics reported they evaluated a total of five people, and took three of them to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that such as spinal discomfort and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets encountering severe turbulence, with researchers saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the representative noted, adding that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is becoming more common - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a harrowing five seconds bout of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are around 5,000 incidents of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that now take off worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing unstable air generate in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As a changing climate modifies atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that air travel could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the higher altitudes are likely to increase the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.