A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Strikes Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta Airlines jet from LA to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed five patients, and transferred three to the hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the newest example of planes experiencing severe turbulence, with experts indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

On board were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson noted, clarifying that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders reported they received a call just three minutes before the plane landed, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" rough air just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a frightening short but intense bout of severe turbulence. An individual passed away and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is fairly routine during flights, and while cases of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing unstable air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As global warming modifies weather patterns, experts warn that flying could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.