Multiple Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt after a Delta flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants were injured.

Local paramedics stated they assessed a total of five people, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and head pain. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

It is the newest example of aircraft being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with researchers saying that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson added, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported 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 becoming more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, 25 people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a terrifying short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a sum of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft going through disturbed air generate in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As global warming alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become more turbulent: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are projected to increase the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.