Several Hurt as Rough Air Impacts Delta Flight into Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured following a Delta aircraft traveling from LA to Sydney experienced rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier informed. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated five patients, and took a trio to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and headaches. Those affected were between their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of commercial jets being hit by severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative said, stating that the plane touched down "safely" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" turbulence just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an precautionary landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while occurrences of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted globally.

Intense turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a jet going through rough air masses exert more than 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 seatbelt.

As a changing climate modifies the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.