Multiple Hurt as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals sustained injuries after a Delta aircraft originating in LA to Sydney experienced significant turbulence 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 told. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to the hospital with relatively minor issues that such as spinal discomfort and head pain. The injured were between their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the newest example of commercial jets encountering severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a major factor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the official noted, clarifying that the plane touched down "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane landed, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

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

During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "severe" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through disturbed air generate greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As a changing climate shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that flying could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are expected to boost the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.