Multiple Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes A Delta Airlines Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt following a Delta Airlines flight originating in LA to Sydney was hit by rough air this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Local paramedics stated they evaluated five patients, and took three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included pain in the back and migraines. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of aircraft encountering turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the representative noted, clarifying that the plane landed "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just three minutes ahead of the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more frequent - and often stronger.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "significant" rough air just two hours into the lengthy trip, and had to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

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

Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that currently occur globally.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the sudden jolts of a jet passing through rough air masses exert in excess of a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.

As climate change alters atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and altered air currents in the jet stream level are likely to increase the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.