Several Affected as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Landing at Sydney
A number of individuals have been injured when a Delta Airlines jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered significant turbulence Friday morning.
Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier told. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.
Emergency medical services said they evaluated five patients, and took three of them to the hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised back pain and headaches. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.
This marks the newest example of commercial jets being hit by atmospheric disturbance, with researchers pointing out that global warming is a major factor.
There were nearly 250 travelers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson said, adding that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on Friday.
Emergency responders said they got a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were waiting on the tarmac.
The reasons turbulence is growing increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.
Last year, two dozen individuals were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "severe" turbulence just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an precautionary landing.
Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a harrowing brief five-second period of extreme instability. A traveler lost their life and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers were thrown from their seats and fell back down.
In-flight turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while cases of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are still very rare.
Research indicates that there are around five thousand cases of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted globally.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft experiencing unstable air generate more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to lift you out of your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.
As climate change alters weather patterns, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are projected to boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
