A Number of Hurt as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt when a Delta aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney encountered rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Emergency medical services said they assessed a total of five people, and transferred three of them to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and headaches. The injured ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the newest example of aircraft experiencing turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson noted, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

Paramedics reported they got a call just a mere three minutes before the plane arrived, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is growing increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and had to make an precautionary landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a certain international flight experienced a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. An individual lost their life and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a sum of more than 35 million flights that now take off around the world.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through unstable air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As global warming modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: warming trends and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to heighten the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.