Several Hurt as Rough Air Strikes Delta Flight Arriving in Sydney

Several people have been injured following a Delta Airlines aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Local paramedics stated they treated five individuals, and transported a trio to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that such as back pain and migraines. Those affected were between their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the latest incident of planes experiencing severe turbulence, with experts pointing out that climate change is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson added, stating that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

Emergency responders reported they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and often stronger.

In the previous year, 25 people were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, those on board on a certain international flight experienced a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler died and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence while flying, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are around five thousand cases of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a overall number of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing disturbed air exert greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.