A Number of Injured as Rough Air Impacts Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta Airlines aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered turbulence this past Friday.

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. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five individuals, and took a trio to a medical facility with minor injuries that included back pain and headaches. Those affected ranged from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the newest example of aircraft experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson noted, adding that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.

Paramedics said they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is growing more common - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, 25 people sustained injuries when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while cases of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the up and down movements of a jet experiencing unstable air exert more than a significant G-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As global warming modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: temperature changes and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.