A number of individuals sustained injuries following a Delta Airlines jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced turbulence this past Friday.
Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they evaluated five patients, and transferred three of them to hospital with minor injuries that such as pain in the back and head pain. The injured were between their thirties and seventies.
The event represents the latest incident of aircraft experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that climate change is a key driver.
On board were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official noted, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
Emergency responders said they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.
During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" turbulence just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a terrifying brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and crashed back down.
In-flight turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.
Data suggests that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that now take off globally.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a plane experiencing disturbed air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.
As global warming alters weather patterns, researchers alert that air travel could become more turbulent: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.