Several Injured as Rough Air Hits A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia
A number of individuals sustained injuries after a Delta Airlines flight originating in LA to Sydney experienced turbulence Friday morning.
Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they treated five individuals, and took three of them to the hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and head pain. The injured spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the most recent case of aircraft being hit by turbulence, with researchers saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson added, stating that the plane landed "safely" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.
Emergency responders said they got a call just a mere three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.
Why plane turbulence is growing increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.
Last year, two dozen individuals were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "significant" turbulence just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an emergency landing.
Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight experienced a terrifying brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.
Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.
Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that now take off worldwide.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet going through disturbed air exert in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.
As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, experts warn that commercial aviation could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.