A Number of Hurt as Rough Air Impacts A Delta Airlines Plane Landing at Sydney
Multiple passengers and crew sustained injuries following a Delta jet originating in Los Angeles to Sydney experienced turbulence Friday morning.
The flight, numbered 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it touched down at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson stated. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.
Emergency medical services said they treated five patients, and took three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included back pain and head pain. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the most recent case of commercial jets experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers indicating that climate change is a significant contributor.
On board were 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the Delta spokesperson said, stating that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on the day in question.
Paramedics reported they were alerted just only 180 seconds ahead of the plane touched down, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.
Why plane turbulence is becoming more common - and more severe.
In the previous year, 25 people were hurt when another Delta jet, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, encountered "considerable" turbulence just a couple of hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an precautionary landing.
Earlier this year, travelers and staff on a certain international flight went through a terrifying five seconds bout of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and dozens were injured, 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 rough conditions are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are still very rare.
Research indicates that there are an estimated thousands of instances of significant in-flight disturbance annually, out of a total of more than 35 million flights that now take off globally.
Severe turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a aircraft passing through rough air masses generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - sufficient force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a seatbelt.
As climate change shifts the conditions in the sky, researchers alert that air travel could become less smooth: temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the higher altitudes are likely to increase the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
