Multiple Hurt as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Plane Arriving in Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured when a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five individuals, and took three to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised spinal discomfort and migraines. The patients' ages spanned from their thirties and seventies.

It is the latest incident of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with experts pointing out that global warming is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official noted, adding that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics indicated they received a call just three minutes before the plane landed, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

The reasons turbulence is getting more common - and more severe.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" turbulence just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are around five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a sum of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a plane going through disturbed air exert more than a significant G-force on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As climate change alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that air travel could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are likely to boost the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.