Country dependent…
BTW minimum 3rd party cover in the EU is way more than 1.5M.
I meant 1 or 5 or whatever million.
In the US it’s usually 1 million or none required at all.
In EU it’s 5?!
Anyway, most cars have significantly higher third party liability sums.
Airborne_Again wrote:
I do believe they have to pay liability anyway as the main purpose of 3rd party liability insurance is to make sure that the 3rd part gets compensated even if the responsible part isn’t able to pay. But of course they will then try to go after the pilot.
It’s always the case for 3rd party in any country in the world, can you imagine the same logic for pedestrians in the road? say I am getting hit by drunk car driver or reckless truck, losing my two legs and not getting a penny?
For hull value, insurance may refuse to pay but historically they ALWAYS did, it’s not their interest to break market confidence or ‘disaggregate the pool’, anyway they would charge higher premiums based on probabilities and actual aircraft value and these would factor outcomes from the most reckless & negligent pilots, insurance has more problems with ‘frauds and false claims’ than people crashing…
If the amounts are high with negligence, they would pay and retrospectively come back after the pilot (or whoever the rich guy behind him if the pilot is a poor guy on tight salary with zero assets)
Peter wrote:
If a named pilot was drunk, they probably won’t pay out to anybody.
I do believe they have to pay liability anyway as the main purpose of 3rd party liability insurance is to make sure that the 3rd part gets compensated even if the responsible part isn’t able to pay. But of course they will then try to go after the pilot.
As I say, country dependent.
In the UK, if you are a named pilot, they will pay out (unless there are factors like no license, etc – much discussed already) and at their option will try to recover costs from 3rd parties. But they can’t claim from a named insured party.
If a named pilot was drunk, they probably won’t pay out to anybody. BTW minimum 3rd party cover in the EU is way more than 1.5M.
It will pay out „mandatory third party liability“ to the damaged third party, yes.
E.g., you own a TB-20 and rent it to a friend. Said friend flies intoxicated and experiences an engine failure, and crashes, albeit survives, into a house in Kensington, causing a major fire, injuries etc…
The damaged third party will get 1, 5 or whatever million (usual sum for N-reg pistons).
However, that will not be the end of it.
In the UK, insurance does cover negligence 
Not covering negligence above some “level” is a German (possibly Germanic) thing.
One could also argue that not covering negligence makes insurance worthless, in many scenarios.
Insurance covers mishaps, not negligence. The final liability always rests with the operator (tricky term, but that’s not necessarily the PIC).
Well, yes, but you get into country dependent areas.
Shareholder/s of said company are not liable with their personal assets.
They would be in the UK, if they were just shareholders in the aircraft directly (ref: Civil Aviation Act).
If a shareholder is also a director of such company, and it can be proven that some oversight negligence existed
Tricky area, and very complex and usually really hard to prove.
(gross) negligence
German specific term (previous threads) e.g. around here.
As for the other factors, that is why one has insurance
But it doesn’t protect the operator or the pilot from personal liability; that is basically impossible and I am pretty sure that’s true in every civilised country otherwise people would just put their assets in a company and walk away from all liability
If operator = company owning the plane then there is liability obviously, which is the point. Shareholder/s of said company are not liable with their personal assets.
If a shareholder is also a director of such company, and it can be proven that some oversight negligence existed, it’s a different story.
Otherwise, why is it called a „limited liability“ company?
The personal liability of the PIC for (gross) negligence is nice but not fruitful due to usually not enough personal assets.
Third party liability insurance will pay out to the (insufficient) insured sum, anything beyond will be the problem of the operator.
Hence, nobody has „bigger“ planes in their name personally.
A fuel leak during parking for a weekend at a larger airport can cause multi million damages.
