Several Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people have been injured when a Delta Airlines jet from LA to Sydney encountered rough air Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Local paramedics reported they evaluated a total of five people, and transported three to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and headaches. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of planes being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a key driver.

On board were 245 people and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the official noted, clarifying that the plane landed "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more common - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "significant" turbulence just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an precautionary landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. One passenger died and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while cases of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Research indicates that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur globally.

Intense turbulence is defined as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing rough air masses generate greater than 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 shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that flying could become less smooth: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are projected to heighten the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.