Several Affected as Rough Air Impacts Delta Plane into Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt after a Delta aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced significant turbulence Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants were injured.

Emergency medical services reported they treated five patients, and transferred three to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that such as pain in the back and migraines. Those affected were between their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the newest example of planes being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with researchers pointing out that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.

There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson added, stating that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.

The NSW Ambulance Service said they were alerted just a mere three minutes prior to the plane landed, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more frequent - and often stronger.

In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing five seconds period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while cases of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.

Data suggests that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million flights that now take off worldwide.

Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a jet experiencing disturbed air apply greater than 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.

As global warming modifies the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to boost the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.