Multiple Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Hits Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt after a Delta jet traveling from LA to Sydney experienced turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five patients, and transferred three to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and headaches. The patients' ages were between their 30s to 70s.

It is the newest example of aircraft being hit by turbulence, with experts saying that climate change is a significant contributor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official added, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Paramedics reported they were alerted just three minutes before the plane arrived, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is growing more frequent - and more severe.

In the previous year, 25 people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying five seconds period of extreme instability. A traveler died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Research indicates that there are approximately five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that currently occur worldwide.

Intense turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through rough air masses generate in excess of a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As climate change modifies weather patterns, researchers alert that air travel could become more turbulent: warming trends and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.