A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Impacts Delta Flight into Sydney

Several people sustained injuries after a Delta jet from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

Emergency medical services reported they assessed five individuals, and transferred three to the hospital with minor injuries that included back pain and headaches. The injured spanned from their thirties and seventies.

It is the newest example of planes encountering atmospheric disturbance, with researchers indicating that global warming is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the official noted, adding that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at the airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.

Paramedics indicated they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

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

During the past year, two dozen individuals were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening short but intense of severe turbulence. An individual died and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

Turbulence is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a jet passing through disturbed air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As global warming alters atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become less smooth: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are projected to boost the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.