A Number of Affected as Turbulence Hits Delta Aircraft Landing at Sydney

Several people sustained injuries following a Delta Airlines aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson informed. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they treated a total of five people, and transferred a trio to the hospital with minor injuries that included pain in the back and headaches. Those affected were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

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

Why plane turbulence is growing more frequent - and more severe.

During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, hit "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight went through a frightening brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur globally.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a jet going through disturbed air exert more than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As global warming modifies atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: warming trends and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to heighten the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.