A Number of Affected as Turbulence Strikes Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt after a Delta jet traveling from LA to Sydney encountered turbulence this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson informed. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated a total of five people, and transported three to the hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and headaches. Those affected ranged from their 30s to 70s.

This marks the most recent case of aircraft experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that climate change is a key driver.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the official added, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they got a call just three minutes before the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why in-flight bumpiness is growing more common - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "significant" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a terrifying short but intense of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a sum of more than 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a jet experiencing rough air masses apply in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As global warming shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.