A Number of Hurt as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

A number of individuals were hurt after a Delta flight traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

Local paramedics reported they assessed five patients, and transferred three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and head pain. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets encountering atmospheric disturbance, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a key driver.

There were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson noted, adding that the plane landed "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is becoming more common - and potentially more dangerous.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" turbulence just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing short but intense of severe turbulence. An individual died and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence during flights, and while instances of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft experiencing rough air masses exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.

As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the jet stream level are likely to boost the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.