Several Affected as Turbulence Hits A Delta Airlines Flight into Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Local paramedics said they treated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the most recent case of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that climate change is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the official noted, clarifying that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

Paramedics said they got a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more frequent - and more severe.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" turbulence just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying five seconds period of extreme instability. An individual passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through unstable air generate more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As climate change shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that air travel could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.