Several Hurt as Rough Air Hits A Delta Airlines Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries following a Delta Airlines aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence this past Friday.
Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed five patients, and transferred a trio to the hospital with relatively minor issues that included pain in the back and head pain. The injured spanned from their 30s to 70s.
It is the latest incident of planes encountering atmospheric disturbance, with experts saying that climate change is a significant contributor.
On board were nearly 250 travelers and fifteen staff members on the aircraft, the representative said, adding that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at the airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.
Emergency responders indicated they received a call just three minutes before the plane touched down, and response teams were waiting on the tarmac.
The reasons turbulence is growing more frequent - and often stronger.
In the previous year, 25 people sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.
Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a frightening brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.
In-flight turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.
Research indicates that there are approximately 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that currently occur around the world.
Severe turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a plane experiencing rough air masses apply in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.
As global warming shifts the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are projected to heighten the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.
