Several Injured as Turbulence Impacts Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they assessed a total of five people, and took a trio to hospital with minor injuries that such as back pain and migraines. Those affected ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of commercial jets encountering severe turbulence, with experts indicating that climate change is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative added, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the 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 landed, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is growing more common - and often stronger.

During the past year, 25 people were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a frightening short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted globally.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft going through rough air masses generate greater than a significant G-force on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become less smooth: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are expected to increase the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.