Several Hurt as Rough Air Impacts Delta Flight Landing at Sydney
A number of individuals were hurt following a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, an airline spokesperson informed. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.
Local paramedics reported they assessed five individuals, and transferred three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included pain in the back and headaches. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.
It is the most recent case of planes being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with aviation specialists saying that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.
On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the representative said, adding that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday.
Emergency responders reported they got a call just only 180 seconds prior to the plane arrived, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why in-flight bumpiness is getting increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.
During the past year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an emergency landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight went through a frightening short but intense period of extreme instability. An individual lost their life and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.
Bumpy air is not uncommon while flying, and while cases of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.
Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that currently occur globally.
Severe turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a aircraft experiencing disturbed air generate in excess of 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.
As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, experts warn that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.
