A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Strikes Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia
Several people have been injured when a Delta Airlines jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff were injured.
Local paramedics said they evaluated a total of five people, and took a trio to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and head pain. The patients' ages spanned from their 30s to 70s.
It is the most recent case of planes encountering atmospheric disturbance, with researchers saying that global warming is a key driver.
The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the representative said, stating that the plane landed "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.
Emergency responders indicated they got a call just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why plane turbulence is becoming more common - and more severe.
Last year, 25 people sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "severe" turbulence just two hours into the lengthy trip, and had to make an emergency landing.
Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a harrowing five seconds bout of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and fell back down.
Bumpy air is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while instances of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.
Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million journeys that now take off around the world.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the up and down movements of a plane passing through rough air masses exert more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.
As global warming modifies atmospheric conditions, experts warn that flying could become more turbulent: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.