Several Affected as Rough Air Hits Delta Aircraft Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines jet originating in LA to Sydney experienced significant turbulence this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier told. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five patients, and transferred three to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and migraines. The injured were between their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of aircraft experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers saying that global warming is a major factor.

There were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official noted, adding that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

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

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

In the previous year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing five seconds bout of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is a common occurrence while flying, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through disturbed air exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As a changing climate modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: warming trends and altered air currents in the higher altitudes are projected to heighten the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.