Several Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Hits A Delta Airlines Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals sustained injuries after a Delta aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced rough air on Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Several cabin crew members were injured.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they assessed a total of five people, and took three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of planes being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with researchers saying that climate change is a major factor.

There were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative said, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.

During the past year, 25 people were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "severe" rough air just 120 minutes into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying short but intense of severe turbulence. An individual died and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while cases of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted worldwide.

Intense turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a jet experiencing disturbed air exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As climate change modifies weather patterns, specialists caution that air travel could become more turbulent: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to heighten the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.