Several Affected as Turbulence Impacts Delta Flight Arriving in Sydney

Several people have been injured when a Delta Airlines jet from LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official stated. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five individuals, and transported three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and head pain. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

It is the newest example of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative noted, stating that the plane landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is growing increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight went through a frightening brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while instances of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a sum of more than 35 million flights that currently occur globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet experiencing unstable air apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become more turbulent: warming trends and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.