Multiple Injured as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew have been injured after a Delta flight from LA to Sydney encountered significant turbulence on Friday morning.
Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.
Emergency medical services reported they treated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
It is the newest example of planes encountering severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that climate change is a major factor.
On board were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson added, adding that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.
The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they got a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane landed, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.
The reasons turbulence is growing more frequent - and more severe.
Last year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when another Delta jet, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "severe" turbulence just two hours into the lengthy trip, and had to make an precautionary landing.
Recently, travelers and staff on a certain international flight experienced a frightening short but intense bout of severe turbulence. One passenger died and dozens were injured, as those without seatbelts were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.
Bumpy air is not uncommon while flying, and while occurrences of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.
Research indicates that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that now take off around the world.
Intense turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a jet going through unstable air apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.
As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that flying could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to boost the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
