Several Affected as Turbulence Impacts Delta Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries after a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by turbulence Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier told. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.

Emergency medical services reported they treated five individuals, and transported three to the hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised back pain and head pain. The injured spanned from their 30s to 70s.

This marks the latest incident of planes encountering atmospheric disturbance, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a major factor.

There were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the representative said, adding that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

Emergency responders reported they got a call just three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and response teams were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is growing increasingly prevalent - and more severe.

In the previous year, 25 people were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.

Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a frightening five seconds of severe turbulence. One passenger died and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts rose out of their seats and were slammed back.

Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are remained quite uncommon.

Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance each year, out of a overall number of over 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur around the world.

Severe turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a plane going through disturbed air exert greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a seatbelt.

As global warming alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that air travel could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.