A Number of Injured as Rough Air Strikes Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

A number of individuals were hurt when a Delta Airlines aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney 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 representative for the carrier told. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five patients, and transferred a trio to hospital with minor injuries that such as spinal discomfort and head pain. Those affected ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the most recent case of planes encountering turbulence, with researchers pointing out that climate change is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson noted, clarifying that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders indicated they received a call just three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

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

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a harrowing five seconds bout of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while cases of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are approximately 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million journeys that currently occur around the world.

Intense turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft going through rough air masses exert greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As climate change shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.