A Number of Injured as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta Airlines flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered rough air this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services said they treated five patients, and took three of them to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised spinal discomfort and migraines. The injured spanned from their 30s to 70s.

It is the most recent case of planes experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that global warming is a key driver.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the official added, stating that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Emergency responders said they were alerted just three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more frequent - and more severe.

During the past year, 25 people were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "considerable" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a certain international flight went through a frightening five seconds bout of severe turbulence. An individual passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

Turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are approximately five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that are conducted worldwide.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through unstable air apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change alters the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.