Several Affected as Turbulence Impacts Delta Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia

Several people sustained injuries when a Delta flight originating in LA to Sydney experienced rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five individuals, and transported a trio to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s to 70s.

This marks the newest example of commercial jets encountering severe turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a major factor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative added, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Emergency responders reported they were alerted just three minutes before the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and more severe.

During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" turbulence just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a frightening five seconds of severe turbulence. One passenger died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that currently occur around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft passing through disturbed air exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts atmospheric conditions, experts warn that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.