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

Multiple passengers and crew have been injured following a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five patients, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with minor injuries that comprised spinal discomfort and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their thirties and seventies.

It is the newest example of commercial jets being hit by turbulence, with researchers indicating that global warming is a significant contributor.

The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the official noted, clarifying that the plane landed "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.

Emergency responders indicated they got a call just three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.

The reasons turbulence is getting more common - and often stronger.

Last year, 25 people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" rough air just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an unscheduled landing.

Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler died and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.

Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Estimates show that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that currently occur worldwide.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a aircraft going through disturbed air exert in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.

As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that air travel could become more turbulent: warming trends and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.