New Delhi: A Rs 8 lakh loan was a Jharkhand family’s last-ditch attempt to save 41-year-old Sanjay Kumar, a burn victim in desperate need of advanced care. But on Tuesday, the Beechcraft C90 air ambulance they had chartered to take him to Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital crashed in Chatra district, killing all seven on board.
The Redbird Airways flight vanished from radar less than 30 minutes after taking off from Ranchi. The pilot had requested a deviation citing bad weather shortly before. Kumar, his wife Archana, relative Dhuru, two pilots, a doctor, and a paramedic died in the crash. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said an Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau team was being dispatched to investigate.
The crash has put the spotlight on India’s air ambulance sector, where critically ill patients are often transported by private charter at significant cost. Air ambulance services typically cost between Rs 2-12 lakh within India, and even more for international transfers. Free air ambulance services are available only under select state government programmes.
Here is a look at air ambulance services in India and previous mishaps involving them.
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Air ambulances in India
Air ambulances serve as ‘flying ICUs’, transporting critically ill or unstable patients who require continuous life support, ventilators, or post-surgical monitoring. For Sanjay, whose condition had failed to stabilise since he was electrocuted on Monday, this specialised transport was the only viable way to quickly reach Delhi’s advanced medical facilities.
Despite the critical role of such services, the air medical infrastructure in India is sparse.
The latest official data on India’s air ambulance fleet comes from a 2022 Lok Sabha reply by then Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen V K Singh. He said that 49 air ambulances were operating under Aero Medical Transportation by 19 non-scheduled operators across the country. Around 4,100 patients had hired air ambulances in the previous three years, he said, adding that services were available in rural areas on a need and availability basis.
Of the 49 aircraft, 39 were based in Delhi, five in Maharashtra, two in Kerala, and one each in Gujarat, Odisha, and West Bengal.
Services, both government and private, have since expanded. In 2023, Jharkhand launched its first air ambulance services and said the services connecting people to medical facilities in metro cities would be available at ‘affordable’ rates. The government’s website gives a range of Rs 3 lakh to 8 lakh, depending on the route.
मुख्यमंत्री श्री @HemantSorenJMM का संवेदनशील प्रयास… pic.twitter.com/NY5s7tUkHf
— Office of Chief Minister, Jharkhand (@JharkhandCMO) April 28, 2023
The same year, Hyderabad-based RED.Health announced a fleet of eight aircraft offering air ambulance services in more than 500 cities, while in 2024, the Madhya Pradesh government launched the PM Shri Air Ambulance Seva. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said this week in the state assembly that 109 patients had used the service so far this year. To avail air ambulances in the state, patients can use their Ayushman card.
Helicopters are also used for medical evacuations. In 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated a free helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) at AIIMS Rishikesh under the ‘Sanjeevani Yojana’, aimed at serving accident victims and patients in remote areas of Uttarakhand.
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When life-saving trips go wrong
While air ambulance crashes are rare, there have been a few reported incidents in India before.
In May 2011, a chartered air ambulance carrying Hepatitis-B patient Rahul Raj and six others crashed into a residential colony in Faridabad while flying from Patna to Delhi. Raj had slipped into a coma and was being airlifted for treatment. All seven on board — including two pilots, two doctors, and an attendant — died in the crash. The aircraft also struck a house, killing three people on the ground. A technical malfunction and high wind velocity were reportedly the main reasons for the crash.
Another air ambulance crash in 2016 had several parallels with the Jharkhand incident, although there were no fatalities. The Beechcraft King Air C90 was also carrying seven people, including a brain haemorrhage patient Virendra Rai, and was flying from Patna to Delhi when it crash-landed in Kair village, Najafgarh, a locality in Delhi. Of the seven on board, two were injured. The pilot was able to carry out an emergency landing, averting a major disaster.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)