A Number of Injured as Turbulence Strikes A Delta Airlines Plane into Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew have been injured when a Delta Airlines aircraft from LA to Sydney experienced significant turbulence on Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson informed. A number of the onboard staff were injured.
Local paramedics reported they evaluated five individuals, and transported three of them to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that included spinal discomfort and migraines. The injured ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the latest incident of commercial jets being hit by turbulence, with experts saying that climate change is a key driver.
The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the representative noted, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.
Emergency responders reported they were alerted just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane landed, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.
The reasons turbulence is growing more frequent - and more severe.
During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an emergency landing.
Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a harrowing brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.
In-flight turbulence is a common occurrence during flights, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.
Estimates show that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted around the world.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing unstable air generate greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.
As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and altered air currents in the jet stream level are expected to increase the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.
