Multiple Affected as Rough Air Hits A Delta Airlines Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people sustained injuries after a Delta flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson informed. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Local paramedics reported they treated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that such as pain in the back and head pain. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the newest example of planes experiencing turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

On board were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson noted, adding that the plane touched down "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

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

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a terrifying brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while cases of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a aircraft going through disturbed air apply more than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.