Multiple Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Hits A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured when a Delta aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Local paramedics said they evaluated five patients, and took a trio to a medical facility with minor injuries that included pain in the back and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their thirties and seventies.

It is the most recent case of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a major factor.

On board were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the official said, stating that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is becoming more common - and often stronger.

During the past year, 25 people were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "significant" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while instances of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing unstable air apply in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts atmospheric conditions, experts warn that flying could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are projected to boost the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.