A Number of Affected as Rough Air Strikes Delta Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals have been injured when a Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by rough air Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services said they assessed five individuals, and transported a trio to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and migraines. Those affected ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.

It is the latest incident of commercial jets being hit by severe turbulence, with researchers indicating that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official said, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics reported 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 getting more common - and more severe.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight went through a frightening brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is a common occurrence while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.

Estimates show that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through rough air masses generate greater than 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As a changing climate shifts atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.