Several Affected as Rough Air Hits Delta Flight into Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt after a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced rough air on Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Emergency medical services said they evaluated five patients, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with minor injuries that included pain in the back and migraines. The injured spanned from their 30s to 70s.

This marks the most recent case of commercial jets encountering severe turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official said, clarifying that the plane landed "safely" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane touched down, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is growing increasingly prevalent - and more severe.

During the past year, 25 people were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. An individual passed away and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a overall number of more than 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur globally.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through unstable 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 did not have on a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.