Multiple Injured as Turbulence Impacts Delta Plane Landing at Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries after a Delta Airlines flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney encountered significant turbulence on Friday morning.
The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed a total of five people, and transferred three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the most recent case of commercial jets experiencing turbulence, with experts pointing out that global warming is a major factor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the Airbus A350, the official said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday.
The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and ambulances were ready and waiting at the airport.
The reasons turbulence is getting more frequent - and often stronger.
Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "significant" rough air just two hours into the lengthy trip, and diverted for an precautionary landing.
Earlier this year, those on board on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a harrowing brief five-second period of extreme instability. An individual lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and were slammed back.
Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, and while instances of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.
Estimates show that there are approximately thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a overall number of more than 35 million aircraft departures that currently occur globally.
Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a jet experiencing disturbed air exert more than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.
As climate change shifts atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.