Several Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes Delta Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals have been injured when a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services stated they evaluated five individuals, and transferred three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that included pain in the back and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of aircraft encountering turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a key driver.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson added, stating that the plane landed "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes before the plane touched down, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a certain international flight experienced a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. An individual passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is fairly routine while flying, and while occurrences of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million journeys that now take off around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through disturbed air generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As global warming modifies weather patterns, experts warn that air travel could become less smooth: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.