A Number of Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Hits A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney

Several people have been injured after a Delta aircraft from LA to Sydney was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Local paramedics said they evaluated five individuals, and transferred three to the hospital with minor injuries that such as back pain and migraines. The injured ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the latest incident of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with experts indicating that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson noted, adding that the plane touched down "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they received a call just three minutes prior to the plane landed, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

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

Last year, 25 people were hurt when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a harrowing short but intense of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are around thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million journeys that now take off globally.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing disturbed air exert more than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As global warming modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to heighten the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.