Multiple Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Hits Delta Flight Landing at Sydney

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

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and head pain. Those affected were between their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of planes experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that global warming is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, stating that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they received a call just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is growing more frequent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "severe" rough air just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening five seconds period of extreme instability. An individual died and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while occurrences of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that are conducted worldwide.

Intense turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through rough air masses exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As a changing climate alters the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.