A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Strikes Delta Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals have been injured following a Delta jet originating in LA to Sydney experienced turbulence Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

Local paramedics reported they assessed a total of five people, and transported three to hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised back pain and head pain. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the latest incident of aircraft experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that global warming is a major factor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative said, stating that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

Emergency responders reported they got a call just three minutes before the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and more severe.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "severe" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a frightening five seconds of severe turbulence. An individual passed away and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are approximately five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur globally.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the up and down movements of a plane passing through unstable air exert more than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As a changing climate alters weather patterns, researchers alert that flying could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are likely to boost the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.