Several Injured as Rough Air Hits Delta Aircraft into Sydney

Several people were hurt following a Delta Airlines aircraft from LA to Sydney experienced significant turbulence this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services stated they assessed a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and head pain. Those affected ranged from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of commercial jets being hit by severe turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative added, stating that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more common - and often stronger.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while instances of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a total of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the vertical motions of a plane experiencing disturbed air exert 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 seatbelt.

As global warming modifies weather patterns, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.