Multiple Injured as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia
Several people have been injured when a Delta flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney experienced rough air Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants were injured.
Local paramedics reported they assessed five individuals, and transferred three to hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and headaches. The injured ranged from their 30s to 70s.
It is the latest incident of planes experiencing turbulence, with experts saying that global warming is a key driver.
On board were 245 people and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson added, stating that the plane touched down "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
Emergency responders indicated they got a call just three minutes prior to the plane landed, and response teams were standing by on the runway.
Why in-flight bumpiness is growing more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.
Last year, 25 people were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "severe" atmospheric disturbance just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an unscheduled landing.
Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing short but intense bout of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.
Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.
Estimates show that there are approximately five thousand cases of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that currently occur around the world.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is categorized as when the sudden jolts of a jet experiencing disturbed air generate in excess of a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.
As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that flying could become more turbulent: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are expected to boost the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.
