Several Hurt as Turbulence Strikes Delta Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt following a Delta Airlines jet from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered rough air Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official stated. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services stated they treated a total of five people, and transported three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages spanned from their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the latest incident of commercial jets being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with aviation specialists indicating that climate change is a major factor.

There were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the official added, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just three minutes prior to the plane touched down, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, 25 people were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying short but intense period of extreme instability. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million journeys that now take off worldwide.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through disturbed air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As global warming alters atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become more turbulent: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.