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

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight from LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants were injured.

Emergency medical services stated they assessed five patients, and transferred a trio to hospital with minor injuries that included back pain and migraines. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the latest incident of aircraft encountering turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that climate change is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official noted, clarifying that the plane landed "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is growing increasingly prevalent - and more severe.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying five seconds of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that are conducted around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the up and down movements of a jet passing through rough air masses exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As a changing climate alters weather patterns, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are projected to boost the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.