A Number of Injured as Turbulence Impacts Delta Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt following a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered rough air Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

Local paramedics said they treated five patients, and transferred three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as pain in the back and migraines. Those affected were between their 30s to 70s.

This marks the newest example of aircraft encountering atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative noted, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

Paramedics indicated they got a call just three minutes before the plane touched down, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is becoming more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, 25 people sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "considerable" rough air just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, those on board on a certain international flight went through a terrifying short but intense bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet experiencing rough air masses apply in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As climate change modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.