Multiple Hurt as Rough Air Impacts Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries after a Delta aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they treated five individuals, and transported a trio to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and head pain. Those affected were between their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of aircraft experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with experts indicating that global warming is a significant contributor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the representative noted, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they got a call just three minutes before the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and more severe.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "severe" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while occurrences of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted around the world.

Intense turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a plane going through unstable air exert greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As global warming shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that air travel could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are expected to boost the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.