Several Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt after a Delta Airlines flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Local paramedics said they treated five patients, and transferred three to the hospital with minor injuries that included back pain and headaches. Those affected ranged from their 30s to 70s.

This marks the newest example of commercial jets being hit by turbulence, with researchers saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the official said, adding that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they received a call just only 180 seconds ahead of 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 sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" turbulence just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying five seconds period of extreme instability. One passenger died and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

Turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft experiencing unstable air generate greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

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