Several Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Aircraft into Sydney
A number of individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines jet from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence this past Friday.
Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five patients, and transported three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that included back pain and headaches. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s to 70s.
This marks the latest incident of planes encountering turbulence, with experts pointing out that global warming is a major factor.
There were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the official added, adding that the plane touched down "safely" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday morning.
The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.
The reasons turbulence is becoming more common - and often stronger.
During the past year, 25 people were injured when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and dozens were injured, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.
Turbulence is a common occurrence while flying, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.
Research indicates that there are around thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted around the world.
Intense turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet passing through rough air masses generate in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.
As a changing climate shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.