A Number of Injured as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Local paramedics stated they assessed five individuals, and transferred three to a medical facility with minor injuries that included spinal discomfort and head pain. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of planes encountering turbulence, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the representative added, stating that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Paramedics reported they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane arrived, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

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

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight endured a frightening five seconds period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.

Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a plane passing through unstable air exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As climate change alters the conditions in the sky, experts warn that flying could become less smooth: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are projected to boost the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.