Several Hurt as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Plane Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air on Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Local paramedics said they evaluated five individuals, and transported three of them to the hospital with minor injuries that included pain in the back and headaches. The injured spanned from their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the newest example of aircraft encountering atmospheric disturbance, with experts pointing out that climate change is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, clarifying that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they got a call just three minutes before the plane arrived, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more common - and often stronger.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "severe" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a harrowing brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. An individual passed away and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet experiencing disturbed air exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As a changing climate shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to increase the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.