Several Affected as Turbulence Hits A Delta Airlines Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt after a Delta aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.

Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants were injured.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five individuals, and transported three of them to the hospital with minor injuries that included back pain and headaches. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the newest example of aircraft encountering turbulence, with experts pointing out that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.

On board were nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative noted, adding that the plane landed "without further incident" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Paramedics reported they got a call just a mere three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

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

Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" rough air just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. An individual died and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while cases of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that currently occur globally.

Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through unstable air apply more than a significant G-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As climate change modifies the conditions in the sky, experts warn that commercial aviation could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to heighten the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.