Is there any insurance offering for AOG (aircraft on ground) situations?
I did a bit of a research and asked my insurance company which returned with negative results.
I wonder if anyone knows of a company which provides such insurance i.e. for travelling costs, costs for flying over a mechanic etc. in case the aircraft is stuck somewhere due to technical problems.
Insurers here in the UK will normally allow an aircraft to be put on ‘Ground Risk’ if the aircraft is expected to be grounded for a long period. I can’t remember how long the Insurers require it to be grounded before they consider it but not very long. (3 months possibly).
My own aircraft was on ‘Ground Risk’ last year for 6 months.
Ground Risk can include a Test Flight after a prolonged period of maintenance, but the exact terms can of course vary from one Insurer to another.
If your repairs are part of the existing Insurance Policy then the cost of getting a Mechanic to the aircraft can be covered by the Policy. I know of 2 such instances where the costs were paid by the Insurer after an accident in a different country.
I had such an insurance organised by the broker Filhet Allard, I think it cost 95 EUR/year. It covered hotel and repatriation of pilot + passengers, travel of pilot / mechanic to fetch the plane, but only if you were stuck more than 2 days, and only in kind: you call the insurer, and they organise hotel, train / CAT / … No reimbursement if you organised stuff yourself.
I think the insurer stopped offering it.
French aeroclubs have a “stuck due to weather etc” insurance, described e.g. here. The benefits are incredibly generous but it cannot be that expensive, which indicates it gets rarely invoked.
But this isn’t insurance for the aircraft owner to cover e.g. engine repairs if the crankshaft snaps, general sorting out of a plane so it can fly again, etc. I have never heard of insurance for that. Basically it would be a purchase of an extended warranty on the aircraft, with on-site cover. If you want an insurance company to pay for that, you need to crash it 
Then, in most cases of being stranded in some remote place (e.g. Greece), they will pay for shipping the plane back on a truck and repairing it.
my intention was not to pay for the repairs but to get all the costs of arranging everyone’s airline tickets, hotels and the costs for bringing over the mechanic, paying for all the hangar/parking fees when aircraft is down etc. it is generally to make sure we are not stranded somewhere and have costs accumulate hour by hour.
Peter wrote:
French aeroclubs have a “stuck due to weather etc” insurance, described e.g. here. The benefits are incredibly generous but it cannot be that expensive, which indicates it gets rarely invoked.
Or there are many aeroclub members (paying many times a small premium), but few ever travel (so few are ever in a position to be in a risk to be stuck out-of-base), local flights mostly?
A large boating forums has a „boaters help boaters“ program. The idea is to help each other (transport of spare parts etc..). The critical size needed might be to small in GA, but it would be nice.
I agree that it would be a good idea to set up a pan European network of pilots willing to help out in these circumstances.
At most airfields, you will find local groups who will help each other out by flying out to collect pilots and pax, and / or flying engineers or parts to get the aircraft repaired. Many home based aircraft are maintained elsewhere, and we ferry each other back and forth when a/c need to dropped off or collected from Maintenace.
However a pan European group would be a benefit.
