A Number of Injured as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured after a Delta Airlines aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney experienced significant turbulence Friday morning.

Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official told. Several cabin crew members were injured.

Local paramedics said they assessed a total of five people, and transferred three to a medical facility with relatively minor issues that included back pain and head pain. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.

The event represents the latest incident of aircraft being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with aviation specialists pointing out that climate change is a key driver.

There were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the official said, clarifying that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.

Emergency responders said they received a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.

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

During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "severe" turbulence just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an precautionary landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler passed away and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.

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

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a plane going through unstable air generate greater than a significant G-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As global warming modifies atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are projected to increase the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.