Several Affected as Rough Air Strikes Delta Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt when a Delta flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five individuals, and transported three to the hospital with relatively minor issues that included back pain and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the most recent case of planes experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers indicating that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official added, stating that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is becoming increasingly prevalent - and more severe.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" rough air just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a certain international flight endured a terrifying brief five-second of severe turbulence. One passenger passed away and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while cases of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a total of over 35 million flights that now take off around the world.

Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a jet passing through unstable air exert greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As a changing climate modifies weather patterns, experts warn that flying could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are expected to increase the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.