Multiple Injured as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals sustained injuries after a Delta Airlines aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney encountered rough air Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

Emergency medical services stated they treated five patients, and transferred three of them to hospital with minor injuries that included back pain and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of planes being hit by turbulence, with researchers saying that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative noted, stating that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane arrived, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

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

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "significant" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a frightening brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while instances of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are approximately five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million journeys that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a aircraft experiencing rough air masses exert in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become more turbulent: temperature changes and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.