Several Affected as Rough Air Strikes Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney, Australia
Several people sustained injuries following a Delta aircraft originating in LA to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence this past Friday.
Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed five individuals, and transported three to a medical facility with minor injuries that such as back pain and headaches. The injured spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the latest incident of commercial jets experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.
On board were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, clarifying that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
The NSW Ambulance Service said they received a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.
Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more frequent - and more severe.
During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" turbulence just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.
Recently, those on board 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 individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and fell back down.
In-flight turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while instances of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.
Research indicates that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a total of over 35 million journeys that currently occur globally.
Severe turbulence is described as when the up and down movements of a aircraft passing through rough air masses exert more than 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 alters the conditions in the sky, experts warn that commercial aviation could become less smooth: warming trends and altered air currents in the jet stream level are projected to increase the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.