Multiple Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured when a Delta Airlines flight from LA to Sydney experienced rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services stated they evaluated five individuals, and took three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that included pain in the back and migraines. Those affected ranged from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets being hit by severe turbulence, with experts indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official noted, clarifying that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Paramedics indicated they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane landed, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "severe" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a frightening short but intense bout of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a sum of over 35 million flights that are conducted worldwide.

Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a plane passing through disturbed air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As global warming modifies weather patterns, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are likely to increase the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.