Several Affected as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries following a Delta jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced rough air this past Friday.
Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, a representative for the carrier informed. A number of the onboard staff were injured.
Emergency medical services reported they evaluated five patients, and took three of them to hospital with relatively minor issues that comprised pain in the back and migraines. The injured ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
It is the most recent case of commercial jets being hit by severe turbulence, with aviation specialists saying that global warming is a significant contributor.
On board were 245 people and 15 crew members on the wide-body jet, the representative added, adding that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
The NSW Ambulance Service indicated they received a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane touched down, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.
Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more frequent - and often stronger.
During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when another Delta jet, flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" rough air just a couple of hours into the long-haul flight, and was forced to make an emergency landing.
Recently, those on board on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a harrowing brief five-second of severe turbulence. One passenger lost their life and numerous people sustained injuries, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and crashed back down.
Turbulence 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 five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence each year, out of a total of over 35 million journeys that now take off globally.
Intense turbulence is described as when the vertical motions of a plane experiencing unstable air generate in excess of a significant G-force on your body - enough to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a restraint.
As a changing climate modifies atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
