Multiple Injured as Turbulence Hits A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney

Several people sustained injuries when a Delta flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

Local paramedics said they treated five patients, and transported three to hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the latest incident of planes being hit by turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that climate change is a major factor.

There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official added, stating that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Paramedics said they were alerted just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is becoming increasingly prevalent - and more severe.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying five seconds period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are around five thousand cases of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing rough air masses generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As climate change modifies atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become bumpier: warming trends and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to increase the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.