EVAS to retrofit passenger planes into air ambulances

Exploits Valley Air Service (EVAS) operated Air Canada flights before the pandemic, but now the company is branching out with the conversation of a Beechcraft 1900D, a 19-seat passenger plane.

"It's a great fit for medical people. Like, this aircraft is the right size. It can go into a 3,000 foot strip. It can climb to 25,000 feet and go over 300 miles an hour," EVAS CEO Pat White told CBC News. "So it's really an ideal aircraft for that."

EVAS will retrofit six airplanes into air ambulances for Latitude Air Ambulance. White said they can fit the planes with equipment for multiple patients, newborns, isolation chambers for infectious diseases and they can take bariatric patients.

Fitted with life-saving equipment

"There are actually over 200 aircraft that have to be replaced. I can see dozens and dozens of people working on this product in multiple shifts going forward," White said.

Latitude bought the planes, shipped them to Gander, Canada, to be refitted into air ambulances and will fly them home when the job is done. They'll be fitted with life-saving equipment, a lift for stretchers and a bay where stretchers can lock in during flights.

Meanwhile, German air rescue service DRF Luftrettung is putting the world’s first upgraded H145 helicopter into operation.