A Number of Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia

Several people have been injured after a Delta flight from LA to Sydney was hit by turbulence this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson told. Four flight attendants were injured.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated five individuals, and transferred three of them to a medical facility with minor injuries that comprised back pain and headaches. The injured spanned from their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the most recent case of aircraft being hit by severe turbulence, with experts indicating that global warming is a major factor.

There were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative noted, clarifying that the plane touched down "without further incident" at the airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is getting more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off worldwide.

Severe turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing disturbed air apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.