A Number of Affected as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia

Several people have been injured when a Delta Airlines flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by rough air this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

Emergency medical services said they assessed five individuals, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and migraines. The injured spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the newest example of planes experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with researchers indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

On board were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official added, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

Paramedics said they received a call just three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

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

During the past year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a frightening short but intense period of extreme instability. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while cases of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a sum of more than 35 million flights that are conducted globally.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through disturbed air exert in excess of a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change modifies atmospheric conditions, experts warn that commercial aviation could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are expected to increase the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.