A Number of Hurt as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew were hurt when a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered significant turbulence this past Friday.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson told. Four flight attendants required medical attention.

Emergency medical services reported they assessed a total of five people, and transported three of them to hospital with minor injuries that included pain in the back and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

The event represents the latest incident of commercial jets being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that global warming is a significant contributor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson said, stating that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Emergency responders indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes prior to the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is growing more common - and often stronger.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler died and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a total of over 35 million aircraft departures that now take off worldwide.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the sudden jolts of a jet experiencing unstable air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As global warming modifies the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are likely to heighten the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.