A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Hits A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt when a Delta jet traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia encountered significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed five patients, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that included pain in the back and head pain. The injured ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the newest example of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that global warming is a significant contributor.

On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the representative said, clarifying that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics reported they got a call just only 180 seconds before the plane landed, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, 25 people were hurt when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying short but intense period of extreme instability. A traveler died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are approximately five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a sum of over 35 million flights that currently occur around the world.

Severe turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a plane passing through rough air masses exert greater than a significant G-force on your body - sufficient force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.