A Number of Injured as Rough Air Strikes Delta Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. Four flight attendants were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they treated five patients, and transported three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the newest example of aircraft experiencing turbulence, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

There were 245 people and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson added, adding that the plane touched down "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

Paramedics reported they got a call just three minutes before the plane arrived, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

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

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, hit "considerable" turbulence just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. An individual died and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while cases of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

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

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the up and down movements of a plane going through disturbed air generate greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts the conditions in the sky, experts warn that air travel could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.