Several Injured as Rough Air Impacts Delta Plane Arriving in Sydney
Several people sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines jet from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.
Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. Several cabin crew members sustained injuries.
Emergency medical services stated they evaluated five individuals, and transported three to the hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and headaches. The patients' ages were between their thirties and seventies.
It is the newest example of planes being hit by turbulence, with researchers saying that climate change is a major factor.
There were 245 passengers and 15 crew members on the Airbus A350, the Delta spokesperson said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.
Emergency responders said they got a call just three minutes prior to the plane arrived, and response teams were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why in-flight bumpiness is getting more common - and more severe.
During the past year, two dozen individuals were injured when a separate Delta aircraft, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" rough air just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and diverted for an unscheduled landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet went through a terrifying short but intense of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in were thrown from their seats and crashed back down.
In-flight turbulence is not uncommon while flying, and while cases of significant turbulence seem to be rising, they are still very rare.
Estimates show that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is described as when the vertical motions of a plane passing through disturbed air generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - enough to throw you from your seat if you weren't wearing a safety belt.
As global warming alters the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that flying could become less smooth: warming trends and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
