Multiple Injured as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines jet from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered turbulence this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

Local paramedics stated they assessed five patients, and took three of them to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and head pain. The injured ranged from their 30s to 70s.

It is the most recent case of planes encountering turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official added, adding that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Paramedics reported they got a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is getting more common - and often stronger.

In the previous year, 25 people were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying short but intense bout of severe turbulence. An individual died and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are around thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet going through unstable air exert 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 weren't wearing a safety belt.

As climate change alters weather patterns, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are projected to boost the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.