A Number of Injured as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries after a Delta flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

Local paramedics said they treated five individuals, and took a trio to the hospital with minor injuries that such as spinal discomfort and migraines. The patients' ages were between their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with experts indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson added, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they received a call just three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted worldwide.

Intense turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through rough air masses 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 a changing climate shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are likely to heighten the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.