India, Feb. 24 -- When Sanjay Kumar, 41, suffered 63% burn injuries, his desperate family pooled all the money they had to raise Rs.8 lakh for an air ambulance to fly him from Ranchi to New Delhi. The race against time to save his life ended minutes after the Beechcraft King Air C90 air ambulance carrying him crashed in the forests of Chatra. The crash killed Kumar, his wife, Archana Devi, relative Dhuru Kumar, physician Vikas Kumar Gupta, paramedic Sachin Kumar Mishra, and captains Vivek Vikas Bhagat and Savrajdeep Singh.

"Not just one, many families have been ruined," said a relative of Kumar at Chatra Sadar Hospital morgue. "If proper treatment had been available in Ranchi, we would not have had to take him to Delhi."

Bajrangi Prasad...