Multiple Affected as Turbulence Strikes A Delta Airlines Aircraft Landing at Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew were hurt after a Delta Airlines flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney experienced turbulence this past Friday.
The flight, numbered 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they treated a total of five people, and transferred a trio to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and head pain. The patients' ages ranged from their thirties and seventies.
It is the most recent case of planes experiencing atmospheric disturbance, with researchers saying that global warming is a key driver.
There were 245 people and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the official said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
The NSW Ambulance Service reported they got a call just three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.
The reasons turbulence is getting more common - and more severe.
Last year, two dozen individuals were injured when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.
Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a frightening brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. An individual died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.
In-flight turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.
Research indicates that there are around thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million flights that currently occur globally.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet going through rough air masses exert greater than 1.5g-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.
As climate change modifies the conditions in the sky, experts warn that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are likely to boost the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.
