Multiple Hurt as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

A number of individuals have been injured when a Delta flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by rough air on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five individuals, and transferred three of them to the hospital with minor injuries that included pain in the back and head pain. Those affected were between their thirties and seventies.

It is the newest example of aircraft being hit by turbulence, with experts saying that global warming is a major factor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson said, adding that the plane landed "safely" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Paramedics indicated they received a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, 25 people were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while occurrences of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet going through unstable air exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As climate change alters weather patterns, experts warn that air travel could become less smooth: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to boost the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.