Several Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt after a Delta aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they assessed a total of five people, and took a trio to hospital with relatively minor issues that included spinal discomfort and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the most recent case of planes encountering turbulence, with researchers saying that global warming is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative noted, clarifying that the plane landed "without further incident" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

Emergency responders reported they got a call just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, hit "significant" turbulence just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening brief five-second period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a total of over 35 million journeys that now take off around the world.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a aircraft experiencing rough air masses generate in excess of a significant G-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change alters weather patterns, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.