I spoke to a guy yesterday who has had some involvement in this…
Is there a liability on an organiser who does all of the following
This thread is also relevant to some extent. Most of the fly-ins organised by other pilot groups, especially type-specific groups, fall more or less firmly into all the above list.
In fact one organiser (a major N European GA country) told me that if he didn’t do all of this, half the people would not come, on a trip which involves flying to another country.
I am no lawyer but I would think that the possession of a PPL implies competence in preflight and the execution of a flight. But what if the information supplied by the organiser is defective e.g. a notam briefing is supplied but omits something and the pilot gets a €5k fine?
Without knowing any laws on that, I would suggest that the pilot remains responsible for the accuracy of the information. Especially if the organizer prints that out somewhere together with the information itself.
Around here: Liable. Sure is it the pilot’s duty and resposibility to get a weather and NOTAM briefing for his route. But he is not required to get this briefing directly from the official source. He can employ a service provider who gets this information for him (which is what most commercial operators do, unless they are big enough to have their own in-house department for that). A commercial operator will be required to audit his provider in some way before relying on the information provided by him. But this can not be expected from a private person and every court in this country will follow that reasoning.
(BTW: It is the same with charts. A pilot is not required to obtain his charts from the official source (AIP), he can purchase them from a supplier (e.g. Jeppesen) instead. If that supplier’s charts are faulty, he can be held liable. There are several cases in which Jeppesen chart mistakes have been found to be a contributing factor in the accident. Therefore Jeppesen are insured against liablility claims up to 1 billion Dollars.)
Anyone who publishes data that may be used in the planning and or execution of flight, without a prominent disclaimer, is clean daft.
“WARNING! UNOFFICIAL DATA ! CONFIRM FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES FOR PLANNING AND EXECUTING YOUR FLIGHT!”
Then again, if accepting/requesting money for services offered one had better get liability insurance – anybody paying has a right to certain expectations, and they can always go wrong.
Come to think of it: the amount collected may be quite relevant. 10 or 20 quid may be considered a compensation for cost incurred, especially if the organiser is a not-for-profit organisation; but 200-300 quid would raise a suspicion (at least) that the organiser is working out of a commercial background, in this country such a person or organisation would risk becoming subject to VAT and income tax.
In fact this one tickled my phantasy. Just imagine one were to organise a fly-in, perhaps type-related,
Now if only 10 planes turn up, carrying 15 people or so, how much money could one make with how little effort?
However, one obviously ought to aim for people with more money than brains…
without a prominent disclaimer
That would not work for a personal injury scenario.
Perhaps, though I think there might well be differences between countries, and their laws and their legal practice.
But at any rate, personal injury could never be claimed further than the pilot: how could an administrative error lead to physical damage?
The disclaimer would be cover against a pilot busting airspace or disregarding some notam.
There are local regulations for air shows etc. I doubt that a fli-in will fit in there. A fly in is business as usual IMO.
what_next wrote:
Therefore Jeppesen are insured against liablility claims up to 1 billion Dollars.)
So THAT’S why the charts are so expensive!
Peter wrote:
the possession of a PPL implies competence in preflight and the execution of a flight
most of PPLs are able to a local flight but the longer you go, the smaller percentage you get. And going to a different country? even lower….I know many PPLs who´s range is limited to 50 NM only….