The regulation quoted appears to be in respect of commercial ops. and I can find no reference to the legality or otherwise of a private pilot taking the controls of an aeroplane (SEP in this case) without having insurance in place to cover that flight.
Is there something similar that covers private ops?
I can see on the CAA website a paragraph that describes an “operator” and the requirement to have insurance but I can’t find anything that describes enforcement and penalties of non compliance.
Stickandrudderman wrote:
The regulation quoted appears to be in respect of commercial ops.
Second page of the quoted link:
„The Regulation applies to all air carriers and aircraft operators flying within, into, out of or – to a certain extent – over EU territory, with the exception of State aircraft, model aircraft with a maximum take-off mass (MTOM) of less than 20 kg, foot-launched flying machines, captive balloons, kites and parachutes. The Regulation thus establishes a level playing field for all European and third-country aircraft operators when flying within, to or from the Community.“
and
„Some Member States have used the option provided for in Article 6(1) of the Regulation to set a lower level of minimum insurance cover in respect of non-commercial operations by aircraft with an MTOM of less than 2,700 kg, provided that such cover is at least 100,000 SDR per passenger. As a result, different minimum insurance requirements for passenger liability currently apply to non-commercial operations by light aircraft. Some Member States require insurance of 100,000 SDR per passenger; other Member States require 250,000 SDR per passenger. Occasionally, this has led to difficulties for operators of cross-border light general aviation aircraft. However, there is no evidence that this differentiation has resulted in impediments to the free movement of persons. Therefore, the Commission services do not believe that it is necessary to amend the Regulation in order to harmonise the passenger insurance requirements for such non-commercial operations with light aircraft.“
I am sure there is some criminal law about not having insurance that regulates any sentencing.
Even more grave however would be the civil court case where the damaged third party will go after you or your relatives to seek compensation for damages.
In EASA land the term „operator“ is not legally defined.
If you are the owner and PIC of a plane it is clear.
If the owner is someone else and you are PIC and rent the plane the owner could be the operator and thus be liable. In the EASA NCC world owners of private jets have LLCs set up to prevent any direct connection to their personal assets, as the operator is fully responsible for any consequences.
This also exists in NCO. The G-reg Cirrus I rent is owned by an austrian LLC which provides the plane to a non profit club of which I am a member. I rent the plane from the club. Apparently this provides the owners of the plane’s LLC with two layers of protection against liability. If it holds up in court I cannot say. I don’t know if there are (m)any precedence cases in this subject matter.
I am not a legal professional and sometimes I think the acronyms used by EASA are first and foremost some sort of brain labyrinth exercise… ORO ARO NCC NCO etc… it drives me crazy.
Thank Snoopy.
What I’m getting at is if you are found to have driven a car without insurance you have committed a criminal offence and will be brought before a court to be punished, regardless of any accident. Is there an aviation parallel?
You could also look at CAA prosecutions to see if anybody has been done for it.
Peter wrote:
You could also look at CAA prosecutions to see if anybody has been done for it.
Interesting to note the very FEW (just 8) prosecutions 2015 – 16 and just 2 to GA fixed wing pilots, the others went to heli, ultra-light & balloon operators .
The sorts of “transgressions” which the CAA tends to prosecute happen to occur a lot more often within communities 
The only one in there I saw was a commercial balloon operator who didn’t merely just fly (presumably fare paying passengers) without insurance, but also sent the CAA forged certificates. He got 9 months in prison for his troubles plus an additional suspended sentence.
Seems also airfields can ask for specific insurance requirements to visiting aircraft (apart from what you see in EASA texts), not sure about the legality of it but if that is listed in some Part-XXX or Aerodrome manual/license then you are probably bound to it?
Duxford during airshows do insist on visiting aircraft to have a xyzSDR minimum cover amount, they will check that on the day and may kick you out 
Ah, found the prosecution of a private flight for no insurance – see page 3 of https://www.caa.co.uk/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=4294970653 – owner was fined £3.3k. Bit of an odd case, owner was insured, but he was the only person insured to fly the aircraft, but he was a passenger.
