A Number of Affected as Turbulence Impacts Delta Aircraft Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta aircraft traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they treated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that included back pain and head pain. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the most recent case of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.

On board were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the representative noted, stating that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders reported they got a call just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane landed, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

Last year, 25 people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight endured a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence during flights, and while occurrences of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a plane passing through disturbed air generate more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As climate change shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that air travel could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to heighten the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.