Multiple Injured as Rough Air Strikes A Delta Airlines Aircraft into Sydney, Australia
A number of individuals have been injured when a Delta aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney experienced significant turbulence this past Friday.
Delta Flight 41 "went through a short bout of rough air" as it made its approach and landed at Sydney Airport, a company official told. Four flight attendants sustained injuries.
Emergency medical services stated they evaluated a total of five people, and transported three to a medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries that such as back pain and head pain. The patients' ages spanned from their thirties and seventies.
The event represents the most recent case of aircraft experiencing turbulence, with researchers saying that shifting climate patterns is a key driver.
The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the representative said, clarifying that the plane arrived "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on the day in question.
Emergency responders said they received a call just only 180 seconds before the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.
The reasons turbulence is becoming more frequent - and more severe.
During the past year, twenty-five passengers and crew were injured 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 was forced to make an unscheduled landing.
Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines jet experienced a terrifying five seconds of severe turbulence. An individual died and numerous people sustained injuries, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.
In-flight turbulence is fairly routine during flights, and while occurrences of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.
Estimates show that there are around five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a overall number of over 35 million flights that currently occur around the world.
Severe turbulence is defined as when the sudden jolts of a plane experiencing rough air masses generate in excess of 1.5g-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you did not have on a restraint.
As global warming modifies the conditions in the sky, experts warn that flying could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the higher altitudes are likely to heighten the occurrence and strength of significant turbulence.
