A Number of Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia
Several people have been injured following a Delta aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney encountered turbulence this past Friday.
Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants required medical attention.
Local paramedics said they treated five patients, and took three of them to the hospital with minor injuries that included pain in the back and head pain. The injured ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the most recent case of commercial jets experiencing turbulence, with experts indicating that global warming is a key driver.
On board were 245 people and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson added, adding that the plane landed "safely" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.
Emergency responders reported they received a call just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.
Why in-flight bumpiness is growing more frequent - and more severe.
During the past year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "considerable" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and had to make an emergency landing.
Earlier this year, those on board on a certain international flight went through a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.
Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.
Data suggests that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that now take off around the world.
Severe turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a jet experiencing disturbed air generate more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.
As a changing climate alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and altered air currents in the upper atmosphere are expected to heighten the regularity and severity of severe turbulence.
