Multiple Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Strikes Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney
A number of individuals were hurt following a Delta Airlines jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by turbulence Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.
Local paramedics said they assessed a total of five people, and transferred three of them to a medical facility with minor injuries that comprised pain in the back and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the most recent case of planes being hit by turbulence, with experts indicating that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.
There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson noted, adding that the plane landed "without further incident" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.
Paramedics said they got a call just a mere three minutes prior to the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.
The reasons turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.
Last year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, hit "significant" rough air just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.
Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing short but intense of severe turbulence. An individual died and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and fell back down.
Bumpy air is fairly routine during flights, and while cases of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.
Research indicates that there are around thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that now take off globally.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a jet passing through unstable air exert greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.
As global warming shifts weather patterns, researchers alert that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are projected to boost the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.
