Multiple Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts A Delta Airlines Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt when a Delta Airlines aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered turbulence Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson told. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services stated they assessed five patients, and took three of them to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and head pain. The injured ranged from their 30s to 70s.

It is the most recent case of aircraft encountering severe turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that global warming is a major factor.

On board were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson noted, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they were alerted just three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is becoming increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" rough air just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a certain international flight went through a frightening short but intense period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a total of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing disturbed air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts weather patterns, experts warn that flying could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are projected to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.