Several Affected as Turbulence Strikes Delta Aircraft into Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt when a Delta flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced significant turbulence this past Friday.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants were injured.

Local paramedics said they assessed five individuals, and transferred three of them to hospital with minor injuries that comprised back pain and headaches. Those affected were between their thirties and seventies.

This marks the newest example of commercial jets experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with researchers indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official said, stating that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

Paramedics said they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

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

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a frightening brief five-second period of extreme instability. One passenger died and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are approximately 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a plane going through unstable air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As a changing climate alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.