A Number of Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Several people have been injured after a Delta flight traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by rough air on Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson informed. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated five individuals, and transferred a trio to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised spinal discomfort and headaches. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the most recent case of planes experiencing turbulence, with experts indicating that climate change is a major factor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson added, stating that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

Emergency responders said they received a call just a mere three minutes prior to the plane landed, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a frightening short but intense period of extreme instability. An individual died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a plane experiencing unstable air exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, experts warn that flying could become more turbulent: warming trends and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to heighten the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.