Multiple Hurt as Turbulence Impacts Delta Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt following a Delta Airlines jet originating in LA to Sydney encountered turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they evaluated five patients, and transferred a trio to hospital with relatively minor issues that such as pain in the back and headaches. Those affected were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the latest incident of aircraft encountering turbulence, with researchers indicating that global warming is a key driver.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official said, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they got a call just a mere three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more common - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, 25 people were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "considerable" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing five seconds period of extreme instability. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is a common occurrence during flights, and while cases of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a total of over 35 million journeys that currently occur globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the up and down movements of a plane experiencing unstable air apply greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As climate change alters atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that air travel could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are likely to boost the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.