A Number of Injured as Turbulence Strikes A Delta Airlines Plane Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by rough air Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Local paramedics reported they assessed five individuals, and transferred three of them to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their thirties and seventies.

This marks the newest example of commercial jets being hit by turbulence, with researchers pointing out that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

On board were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the representative said, stating that the plane touched down "without further incident" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

Paramedics said they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more frequent - and more severe.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" rough air just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off around the world.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a jet passing through unstable air generate greater than a significant G-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that air travel could become less smooth: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.