A Number of Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight into Sydney, Australia

Several people were hurt after a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by rough air Friday morning.

The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

Emergency medical services reported they evaluated five individuals, and took three to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their thirties and seventies.

This marks the most recent case of commercial jets encountering turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that global warming is a key driver.

There were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official said, clarifying that the plane touched down "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.

Emergency responders said they were alerted just only 180 seconds before the plane arrived, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.

Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, 25 people were hurt when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, hit "severe" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying short but intense of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.

Turbulence is fairly routine while flying, and while occurrences of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a total of over 35 million flights that now take off globally.

Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a aircraft going through unstable air exert greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.

As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become bumpier: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to increase the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.