Multiple Injured as Turbulence Impacts Delta Aircraft into Sydney
A number of individuals have been injured after a Delta Airlines aircraft traveling from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia experienced significant turbulence this past Friday.
Flight DL41 "experienced a brief period of turbulence" as it landed at the Sydney airport, a company official informed. A number of the onboard staff were injured.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service said they evaluated five patients, and took three of them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that included spinal discomfort and headaches. The injured were between their thirties and seventies.
This marks the newest example of aircraft experiencing severe turbulence, with researchers pointing out that shifting climate patterns is a significant contributor.
The aircraft was carrying 245 passengers and fifteen staff members on the wide-body jet, the official noted, stating that the plane arrived "without further incident" at Sydney Airport at 6:48 a.m. local time on Friday morning.
The NSW Ambulance Service reported they received a call just a mere three minutes prior to the plane landed, and emergency vehicles were standing by on the runway.
Why plane turbulence is becoming increasingly prevalent - and often stronger.
In the previous year, twenty-five passengers and crew sustained injuries when a Delta Airlines flight, travelling from Salt Lake City, Utah to Amsterdam, experienced "considerable" turbulence just two hours into the transoceanic journey, and was forced to make an emergency landing.
Earlier this year, passengers and crew on a certain international flight experienced a harrowing five seconds of severe turbulence. A traveler passed away and dozens were injured, as individuals not fastened in rose out of their seats and fell back down.
Bumpy air is fairly routine during flights, and while instances of rough conditions appear to be increasing, they are statistically infrequent.
Research indicates that there are an estimated five thousand cases of severe or worse turbulence annually, out of a overall number of in excess of 35 million journeys that are conducted around the world.
Severe turbulence is described as when the sudden jolts of a aircraft going through disturbed air apply more than a significant G-force on your body - a strong enough force to propel you from your seat if you were not fastened by a safety belt.
As climate change alters atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become bumpier: temperature changes and changing jet streams in the upper atmosphere are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of dangerous in-flight bumps.
