Several Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Hits A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals were hurt when a Delta flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated a total of five people, and transported three to hospital with minor injuries that included spinal discomfort and head pain. The injured spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the latest incident of commercial jets experiencing turbulence, with experts indicating that climate change is a key driver.

There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the official said, stating that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

The NSW Ambulance Service reported they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.

The reasons turbulence is becoming increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.

Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a certain international flight went through a frightening five seconds period of extreme instability. One passenger died and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are approximately 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a overall number of more than 35 million journeys that currently occur around the world.

Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a plane passing through rough air masses exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.

As global warming shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the jet stream level are likely to increase the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.