Several Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes Delta Flight into Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured following a Delta aircraft originating in LA to Sydney encountered significant turbulence on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.

Local paramedics said they assessed a total of five people, and took a trio to hospital with minor injuries that comprised pain in the back and migraines. The injured were between their 30s to 70s.

It is the newest example of planes experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with aviation specialists saying that climate change is a key driver.

The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative said, stating that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders reported they received a call just three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, 25 people were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" turbulence just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an precautionary landing.

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

Bumpy air is not uncommon while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a jet experiencing rough air masses exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As a changing climate shifts atmospheric conditions, experts warn that flying could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are likely to boost the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.