Multiple Affected as Rough Air Hits A Delta Airlines Plane Landing at Sydney
Several people were hurt following a Delta jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered turbulence on Friday morning.
Delta Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence" as it made its approach and landed at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier stated. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.
Emergency medical services said they evaluated five patients, and took three of them to the hospital with minor injuries that such as pain in the back and migraines. The injured were between their thirties and seventies.
The event represents the latest incident of aircraft experiencing severe turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a major factor.
The aircraft was carrying nearly 250 travelers and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the representative said, clarifying that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.
Emergency responders said they were alerted just a mere three minutes before the plane landed, and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac.
The reasons turbulence is growing more frequent - and potentially more dangerous.
During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" atmospheric disturbance just 120 minutes into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an emergency landing.
Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight went through a terrifying five seconds period of extreme instability. An individual died and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.
Bumpy air is not uncommon during flights, and while cases of strong or severe turbulence seem to be rising, they are statistically infrequent.
Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence annually, out of a overall number of over 35 million flights that now take off worldwide.
Intense turbulence is categorized as when the vertical motions of a plane experiencing rough air masses apply more than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you weren't wearing a seatbelt.
As a changing climate alters atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: warming trends and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are projected to increase the regularity and severity of significant turbulence.
