A Number of Affected as Turbulence Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Several people have been injured when a Delta jet from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official stated. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Local paramedics reported they evaluated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that included spinal discomfort and head pain. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the newest example of aircraft being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with researchers saying that climate change is a significant contributor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders indicated they were alerted just only 180 seconds prior to the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.

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

During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "severe" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an precautionary landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying short but intense period of extreme instability. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence while flying, and while cases of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the up and down movements of a jet experiencing unstable air apply in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As a changing climate modifies 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 boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.