A Number of Injured as Turbulence Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney
A number of individuals sustained injuries following a Delta jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered significant turbulence Friday morning.
The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a company official stated. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.
Emergency medical services stated they assessed five patients, and took a trio to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as spinal discomfort and migraines. Those affected spanned from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the newest example of commercial jets encountering turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that global warming is a major factor.
There were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official noted, adding that the plane landed "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
Paramedics reported they were alerted just only 180 seconds prior to the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.
Why plane turbulence is getting more common - and more severe.
In the previous year, 25 people sustained injuries when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, encountered "significant" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a harrowing short but intense of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and fell back down.
Bumpy air is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while cases of rough conditions seem to be rising, they are still very rare.
Data suggests that there are around thousands of instances of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of more than 35 million journeys that now take off worldwide.
Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical motions of a aircraft passing through disturbed air exert greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to lift you out of your seat if you did not have on a restraint.
As a changing climate modifies the conditions in the sky, experts warn that flying could become bumpier: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the jet stream level are projected to boost the frequency and intensity of significant turbulence.
