Documents required for an air ambulance or dead body transport by air
Whether you are moving a patient or bringing someone home, the flight cannot leave until the paperwork is in order. Here is the whole list in plain language — what each paper is, who issues it, and which ones we collect on your behalf.
Flying a patient
A patient flies as a passenger, so the paperwork is about fitness to fly and identity.
Patient transfer within India
For a charter air ambulance inside India, this is everything we normally need. Most of it already exists in the patient's file at the current hospital.
- 1
Fit-to-fly / medical clearance certificate
The treating doctor or the current hospital
Confirms the patient is stable enough to fly and what support they need in the air — oxygen, ventilator, infusions.
- 2
Latest medical records and discharge summary
The current hospital
The flight crew sets oxygen, ventilator settings and medication from these before take-off.
- 3
Photo ID of the patient
Aadhaar, PAN, driving licence or passport
Airport security and the airline check identity for everyone who boards, patient included.
- 4
Photo ID of each attendant travelling
Any government ID
Family members flying with the patient are checked the same way.
- 5
Consent from the next of kin
The family
Records who asked for the transfer and who will receive the patient at the other end.
- 6
Bed confirmation from the receiving hospital
The destination hospital
A flight only leaves once there is a confirmed bed to land into. We help arrange this if it is not in place yet.
- 7
Airline MEDIF form
The treating doctor, submitted to the airline
The IATA medical information form the airline needs to clear a stretcher or oxygen on board.
Only for a stretcher or medical escort on a commercial flight, usually 48–72 hours before departure.
Patient transfer to or from another country
Everything in the domestic list still applies. A cross-border flight adds the travel papers and the clearances between the two countries.
- 1
Valid passport and visa
For the patient and for every attendant
Immigration clears each person individually, whether the aircraft is a charter or a scheduled flight.
- 2
Medical report and fit-to-fly certificate in English
The treating doctor
The receiving hospital and the foreign authorities read the case from this, so it has to be in English.
- 3
Acceptance letter from the receiving hospital
The destination hospital
Confirms the admitting consultant and the bed at the other end before the aircraft is released.
- 4
Airline medical clearance (MEDIF)
The airline's medical desk
Required before a stretcher, oxygen or a medical escort can be booked on a commercial flight.
Commercial stretcher and medical escort transfers only.
- 5
Landing, overflight and ground-handling permits
Aviation authorities of the countries en route
Arranged by our aeromedical team, not by the family — listed so you know it is being handled.
Charter aircraft only.
Flying a body home
A body flies as cargo, so the paperwork is about preservation, identity and clearance.
Dead body transport within India
A body travels as air cargo, not as a passenger, and the airline will not accept it until this set is complete. We collect most of it for you.
- 1
Death certificate
The hospital or attending doctor, registered with the municipal authority
The document everything else is built on. It should carry the name, age, date and cause of death, and the doctor's seal and registration number.
- 2
Embalming certificate
A licensed embalming centre
Airlines require the body to be embalmed before it flies. The certificate is the proof.
- 3
Coffin sealing certificate
The embalming centre or undertaker
Confirms the body is sealed in an airtight, zinc-lined, leak-proof coffin of the kind airlines accept.
- 4
Police NOC
The local police station
Confirms there is no legal objection to moving the body. A post-mortem report or panchnama goes with it where the death was unnatural.
Interstate movement, and any unnatural or unattended death.
- 5
Photo ID of the deceased and of the person receiving the body
Any government ID
Airline cargo verifies both ends — who is being sent, and who is authorised to collect.
- 6
Air waybill (AWB)
The airline cargo office
The booking document for the flight itself. We raise it with the airline once the rest is ready.
Repatriation to or from another country
Bringing someone home from abroad, or sending them from India, keeps the whole domestic set and adds the consular papers the two countries ask for.
- 1
No Objection Certificate from the embassy or consulate
The Indian mission abroad when the body is coming to India; the destination country's mission in India when it is leaving
Airlines and customs will not accept mortal remains without it.
- 2
The deceased's passport, cancelled
The mission that issued it
Presented while clearing the remains. For an Indian national who died abroad, the mission cancels the passport and returns it with the file.
- 3
Certificate of freedom from infection
The local health authority or the hospital
States that the remains carry no notifiable infection — a health clearance requirement at the receiving airport.
- 4
Death certificate, translated into English
A certified translator, where the original is in another language
Indian authorities and the airline read the cause of death from it, so it has to be legible to them.
When the original certificate is not in English.
- 5
Post-mortem report and police clearance
The authorities of the country where the death happened
Needed wherever the death was unnatural, and often asked for even when it was not.
Unnatural or unexplained deaths.
- 6
Customs clearance and air waybill
The airline cargo office and customs
The final step before the coffin is loaded. Handled by our team with the cargo agent.
What AIVA arranges for you
Families rarely have to collect this list alone. Tell us where the patient or the body is and we take over most of it on the same call.
- Embalming at a licensed centre, and the sealed coffin
- Police NOC and the municipal death certificate, where the family cannot collect them
- Airline cargo booking, the air waybill and airport formalities at both ends
- Embassy and consular paperwork for an international case
- Ground ambulance from the hospital or home to the airport, and from the airport to the address at the other end
One thing to keep in mind: the exact list changes with the airline, the state and — for an international case — the two countries involved. Treat this page as the working checklist, and confirm the final set with our team when you call. Nothing here is legal advice.