Several Injured as In-Flight Disturbance Hits Delta Aircraft Arriving in Sydney, Australia
Multiple passengers and crew have been injured following a Delta flight originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia encountered rough air on Friday morning.
The flight, numbered 41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, an airline spokesperson stated. Several cabin crew members required medical attention.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service stated they treated a total of five people, and transferred three of them to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that such as spinal discomfort and migraines. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the most recent case of commercial jets experiencing turbulence, with aviation specialists pointing out that global warming is a major factor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and a crew of 15 on the aircraft, the official noted, clarifying that the plane landed "safely and normally" at the airport at shortly before 7 a.m. on Friday morning.
Paramedics said they received a call just a mere three minutes ahead of the plane arrived, and emergency vehicles were ready and waiting at the airport.
Why in-flight bumpiness is becoming more common - and potentially more dangerous.
Last year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "severe" turbulence just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and had to make an unscheduled landing.
Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight endured a terrifying brief five-second period of extreme instability. An individual passed away and many were hurt, as individuals not fastened in lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.
Bumpy air is a common occurrence on aircraft journeys, and while instances of significant turbulence appear to be increasing, they are remained quite uncommon.
Data suggests that there are an estimated thousands of instances of severe-or-greater turbulence every year, out of a sum of over 35 million journeys that currently occur worldwide.
Severe turbulence is categorized as when the up and down movements of a aircraft experiencing disturbed air generate greater than 1.5 times the force of gravity on your body - sufficient force to throw you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.
As a changing climate modifies the conditions in the sky, specialists caution that commercial aviation could become more turbulent: warming trends and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere are expected to boost the regularity and severity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
