Multiple Hurt as Turbulence Strikes Delta Flight Landing at Sydney

A number of individuals were hurt following a Delta flight originating in LA to Sydney, Australia experienced significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official told. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services said they assessed five individuals, and took three of them to a medical facility with minor injuries that included spinal discomfort and headaches. Those affected were between their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets encountering atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that global warming is a major factor.

On board were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative noted, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, 25 people were injured when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "severe" rough air just 120 minutes into the lengthy trip, and had to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing five seconds of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

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

Data suggests that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet passing through unstable air generate in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As climate change alters the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are projected to heighten the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.