A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Impacts Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt following a Delta Airlines jet from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered significant turbulence 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 stated. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

Emergency medical services stated they treated five patients, and transported three to hospital with relatively minor issues that such as pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of planes encountering severe turbulence, with experts indicating that climate change is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the official added, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

Emergency responders said they got a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more common - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight endured a harrowing brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the up and down movements of a aircraft passing through disturbed air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.

As a changing climate shifts atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to heighten the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.