Multiple Affected as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

A number of individuals sustained injuries when a Delta jet from LA to Sydney, Australia encountered turbulence Friday morning.

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

The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated five patients, and took three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages were between their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of commercial jets being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with experts pointing out that global warming is a significant contributor.

There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative noted, adding that the plane arrived "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.

Paramedics said they got a call just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is growing more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and fell back down.

Turbulence is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while instances of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

Data suggests that there are around thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur globally.

Intense turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft going through rough air masses exert in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.

As global warming shifts weather patterns, experts warn that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.