A Number of Hurt as In-Flight Disturbance Impacts A Delta Airlines Flight Arriving in Sydney
Several people have been injured following a Delta aircraft originating in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced turbulence Friday morning.
Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at Sydney Airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff required medical attention.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they treated five patients, and transferred three of them to the hospital with relatively minor issues that such as spinal discomfort and headaches. The injured were between their 30s up to the 70s.
This marks the latest incident of aircraft being hit by severe turbulence, with experts saying that shifting climate patterns is a major factor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 people and 15 crew members on the aircraft, the official noted, clarifying that the plane touched down "without further incident" at the airport at 06:48 local time on the day in question.
Paramedics said they were alerted just three minutes ahead of the plane landed, and ambulances were standing by on the runway.
The reasons turbulence is getting more common - and potentially more dangerous.
During the past year, two dozen individuals sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, on a route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, Netherlands, experienced "significant" turbulence just 120 minutes into the lengthy trip, and was forced to make an unscheduled landing.
Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a certain international flight endured a terrifying five seconds period of extreme instability. One passenger passed away and many were hurt, as those without seatbelts lifted out of their seats and were slammed back.
Turbulence is fairly routine on aircraft journeys, and while occurrences of significant turbulence are reportedly becoming more frequent, they are statistically infrequent.
Estimates show that there are approximately five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence every year, out of a sum of in excess of 35 million aircraft departures that are conducted worldwide.
Strong atmospheric disturbance is defined as when the up and down movements of a plane experiencing disturbed air apply in excess of 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 seatbelt.
As global warming shifts atmospheric conditions, researchers alert that flying could become more turbulent: warming trends and altered air currents in the jet stream level are projected to heighten the occurrence and strength of dangerous in-flight bumps.
