Several Affected as Turbulence Hits Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson told. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services stated they assessed five individuals, and transferred three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and headaches. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the most recent case of commercial jets encountering atmospheric disturbance, with researchers indicating that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official said, clarifying that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they received a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, 25 people sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while occurrences of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur globally.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft experiencing unstable air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As climate change alters the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are expected to boost the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.