Multiple Affected as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts Delta Plane into Sydney, Australia
Several people have been injured following a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they evaluated a total of five people, and transferred three to a medical facility with minor injuries that included back pain and migraines. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.
It is the newest example of aircraft encountering severe turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a significant contributor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 people and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official said, stating that the plane landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.
Emergency responders said they were alerted just three minutes before the plane touched down, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more frequent - and more severe.
During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "significant" rough air just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an emergency landing.
Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing brief five-second period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and fell back down.
Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.
Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence each year, out of a total of in excess of 35 million journeys that are conducted globally.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a jet going through unstable air generate greater than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.
As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become less smooth: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are projected to boost the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.
