Several Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured when a Delta jet traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia encountered turbulence this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier told. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

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

This marks the most recent case of aircraft experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a key driver.

There were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official noted, adding that the plane landed "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

Emergency responders reported they were alerted just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is becoming increasingly prevalent - and more severe.

In the previous year, two dozen individuals were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening brief five-second of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Bumpy air is fairly routine during flights, and while occurrences of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a overall number of over 35 million flights that currently occur around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through rough air masses exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As global warming alters the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to heighten the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.