Several Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Several people sustained injuries after a Delta flight from LA to Sydney, Australia experienced turbulence this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Emergency medical services said they evaluated a total of five people, and took three to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and head pain. The patients' ages ranged from their thirties and seventies.

It is the latest incident of commercial jets experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with researchers indicating that climate change is a significant contributor.

On board were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson added, clarifying that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

Emergency responders indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" turbulence just 120 minutes into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a harrowing short but intense of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while instances 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 every year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft going through rough air masses exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As a changing climate modifies atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.