A Number of Affected as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Landing at Sydney, Australia

Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries following a Delta aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney was hit by significant turbulence Friday morning.

Delta Flight 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a company official told. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.

Local paramedics said they treated five individuals, and transported three to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included pain in the back and head pain. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.

This marks the most recent case of planes encountering turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.

There were nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the official noted, stating that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.

The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they got a call just a mere three minutes before the plane touched down, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.

Why plane turbulence is getting increasingly prevalent - and potentially more dangerous.

Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" rough air just two hours into the long-haul flight, and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recently, travelers and staff on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a harrowing short but intense period of extreme instability. An individual died and many were hurt, as unbelted passengers lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.

In-flight turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of strong or severe turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.

Research indicates that there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a total of more than 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.

Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the sudden jolts of a plane going through rough air masses generate greater than a significant G-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.

As climate change shifts atmospheric conditions, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become less smooth: shifts in temperature and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.