A Number of Injured as Turbulence Strikes Delta Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries after a Delta Airlines aircraft originating in LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson told. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated five individuals, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that such as pain in the back and headaches. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the latest incident of aircraft encountering severe turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

On board were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson added, clarifying that the plane touched down "without further incident" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics indicated they were alerted just three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.

The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "severe" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing five seconds of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon while flying, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are approximately five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million journeys that now take off worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through unstable air exert more than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.

As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, experts warn that flying could become less smooth: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are likely to increase the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.