Multiple Affected as Rough Air Strikes Delta Plane into Sydney

Several people were hurt after a Delta aircraft traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air this past Friday.

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

Local paramedics stated they evaluated a total of five people, and transferred three to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as pain in the back and head pain. Those affected ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the latest incident of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with experts indicating that climate change is a major factor.

On board were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative said, adding 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 only 180 seconds prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

The reasons turbulence is becoming more frequent - and more severe.

Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a certain international flight went through a frightening short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is a common occurrence while flying, and while occurrences of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million journeys that currently occur worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft experiencing rough air masses exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to boost the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.