Multiple Injured as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney
A number of individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines jet from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air Friday morning.
Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed a total of five people, and took three to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and headaches. Those affected ranged from their 30s to 70s.
It is the most recent case of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with aviation specialists indicating that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.
There were 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the Airbus A350, the representative said, stating that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.
The NSW Ambulance Service reported they received a call just three minutes before the plane landed, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why plane turbulence is getting more frequent - and more severe.
During the past year, 25 people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "significant" turbulence just two hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a certain international flight went through a terrifying five seconds of severe turbulence. A traveler lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and fell back down.
In-flight turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.
Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a overall number of more than 35 million flights that are conducted globally.
Intense turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a plane going through disturbed air apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.
As global warming modifies atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become more turbulent: warming trends and altered air currents in the jet stream level are likely to increase the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.
