Several Affected as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Landing at Sydney

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by rough air Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Four flight attendants were injured.

Emergency medical services said they treated a total of five people, and transported three of them to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s to 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of planes being hit by turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the representative added, adding that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just only 180 seconds before the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

The reasons turbulence is growing more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a terrifying short but intense of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while cases of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are approximately 5,000 incidents of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million flights that are conducted around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet going through rough air masses exert more than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, experts warn that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are likely to boost the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.