Several Injured as Rough Air Hits Delta Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt following a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered rough air on Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson told. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Local paramedics reported they assessed five individuals, and took a trio to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as spinal discomfort and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s to 70s.

This marks the latest incident of planes experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with experts indicating that climate change is a significant contributor.

On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the official said, stating that the plane touched down "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Paramedics said they got a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane touched down, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is growing more common - and more severe.

In the previous year, 25 people were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "severe" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a frightening short but intense period of extreme instability. An individual passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is a common occurrence during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are around thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a sum of over 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a plane passing through rough air masses apply more than a significant G-force on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the jet stream level are likely to increase the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.