A Number of Hurt as Turbulence Strikes Delta Flight into Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence on Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they evaluated five individuals, and took a trio to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included spinal discomfort and migraines. The patients' ages were between their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the newest example of planes experiencing turbulence, with researchers pointing out that climate change is a key driver.

On board were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, stating that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

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

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur globally.

Intense turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a jet passing through unstable air exert greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and altered air currents in the higher altitudes are projected to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.