Multiple Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta Airlines aircraft originating in LA to Sydney was hit by significant turbulence this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson stated. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Emergency medical services said they treated a total of five people, and took three of them to the hospital with minor injuries that comprised back pain and headaches. The injured were between their 30s to 70s.

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

On board were nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the official said, stating that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they got a call just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

The reasons turbulence is growing more common - and potentially more dangerous.

During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing rough air masses exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As global warming shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become less smooth: warming trends and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.