Several Injured as Turbulence Hits A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia
A number of individuals were hurt after a Delta Airlines jet traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia was hit by significant turbulence on Friday morning.
The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. A number of the onboard staff sustained injuries.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service reported they assessed five patients, and took three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that comprised back pain and head pain. The injured were between their thirties and seventies.
The event represents the latest incident of planes being hit by severe turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that climate change is a significant contributor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 people and a crew of 15 on the wide-body jet, the Delta spokesperson said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.
Paramedics said they received a call just three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.
The reasons turbulence is growing more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.
In the previous year, two dozen individuals were hurt when a separate Delta aircraft, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, hit "severe" turbulence just a couple of hours into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.
Recently, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet endured a terrifying brief five-second bout of severe turbulence. A traveler died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers rose out of their seats and were slammed back.
In-flight turbulence is not uncommon on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are remained quite uncommon.
Data suggests that there are an estimated 5,000 incidents of significant in-flight disturbance every year, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that currently occur around the world.
Severe turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a plane going through rough air masses exert greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a safety belt.
As climate change modifies weather patterns, specialists caution that flying could become less smooth: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the jet stream level are likely to boost the occurrence and strength of severe turbulence.
