A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Hits Delta Flight into Sydney, Australia
A number of individuals sustained injuries after a Delta Airlines flight traveling from LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. Four flight attendants were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five patients, and transported three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and migraines. The patients' ages were between their 30s up to the 70s.
The event represents the most recent case of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with researchers saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.
On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, clarifying that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.
Emergency responders said they got a call just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.
Why plane turbulence is becoming more common - 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, encountered "severe" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. An individual died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.
Turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.
Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million flights that are conducted around the world.
Intense turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet passing through disturbed air exert in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.
As climate change alters the conditions in the sky, experts warn that air travel could become more turbulent: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are likely to increase the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
