A Number of Hurt as Turbulence Strikes A Delta Airlines Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia
Several people were hurt following a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by rough air on Friday morning.
The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they assessed five individuals, and transferred a trio to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised pain in the back and head pain. The injured were between their 30s to 70s.
The event represents the latest incident of planes encountering turbulence, with researchers indicating that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 people and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the representative noted, stating that the plane touched down "safely and normally" at the airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.
Emergency responders indicated they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why in-flight bumpiness is getting increasingly prevalent - and more severe.
In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured 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 unscheduled landing.
Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying brief five-second of severe turbulence. An individual lost their life and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and were slammed back.
Bumpy air is fairly routine while flying, and while instances of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.
Data suggests that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a sum of over 35 million flights that currently occur globally.
Severe turbulence is defined as when the up and down movements of a aircraft passing through unstable air generate greater than a significant G-force on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you weren't wearing a restraint.
As a changing climate shifts weather patterns, specialists caution that air travel could become less smooth: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are projected to heighten the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
