A Number of Injured as Rough Air Hits Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people have been injured when a Delta Airlines flight traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia encountered turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services stated they treated a total of five people, and transported a trio to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and head pain. Those affected ranged from their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the latest incident of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with experts saying that global warming is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson added, clarifying that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

Emergency responders indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is getting more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" rough air just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a frightening brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is a common occurrence during flights, and while instances of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a total of over 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted around the world.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a jet passing through unstable air exert more than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As climate change alters weather patterns, experts warn that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.