Several Affected as Turbulence Impacts Delta Plane into Sydney

A number of individuals were hurt when a Delta flight traveling from LA to Sydney encountered turbulence this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson told. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed five individuals, and transferred three of them to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and migraines. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the latest incident of aircraft encountering severe turbulence, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes prior to the plane landed, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and more severe.

During the past year, 25 people sustained injuries when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "severe" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an precautionary landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a harrowing brief five-second period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are around thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Intense turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a plane passing through unstable air generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As climate change modifies atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become bumpier: warming trends and altered air currents in the higher altitudes are projected to boost the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.