A Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney encountered turbulence on Friday morning while landing at Sydney Airport, resulting in several injuries. An airline spokesperson told the BBC that Flight 41 "encountered brief turbulence," with four flight attendants injured and no passengers hurt.
The New South Wales Ambulance Service assessed five patients in total and transported three to hospital with minor injuries, including back pain and headaches. The patients' ages ranged from their 30s to 70s. The Airbus A350, carrying 245 passengers and 15 crew members, landed "safely and normally" at Sydney Airport at 06:48 local time (19:48 GMT).
The ambulance service received a call just three minutes before the plane landed, with emergency vehicles waiting on the tarmac. This is not an isolated incident: last year, a Delta Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam hit "significant" turbulence two hours into the journey, injuring 25 people and forcing an emergency landing.
Experts cite climate change as a major factor in the increasing occurrence of turbulence on flights. In 2024, passengers and crew on a Singapore Airlines flight experienced a terrifying five seconds of severe turbulence, resulting in one passenger death and dozens of injuries as those without seatbelts were lifted from their seats and fell back down.
Turbulence is not uncommon during flights, but cases of strong or severe turbulence, while seemingly on the rise, remain very rare. Estimates indicate there are around 5,000 incidents of severe-or-greater turbulence annually out of more than 35 million global flights.
Severe turbulence is defined as when the vertical movements of a plane through disturbed air exert more than 1.5g-force on the body, enough to lift an unsecured person from their seat. As climate change alters atmospheric conditions, experts warn that air travel could become bumpier, with temperature changes and shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere expected to increase the frequency and intensity of severe turbulence.
Source: www.bbc.com