Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Piper Malibu PA46 N757NY down in Goose Bay

Mooney_Driver wrote:

Now that is interesting.So I am a pilot, have a license and sit in 34 A in an airliner

My post and what the insurance meant was in the context of a private ga plane.

always learning
LO__, Austria

“So I am a pilot, have a license and sit in 34 A in an airliner which decides to be lost”

Dennis Fitch did exatcly that on a DC10 !

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Ibra wrote:

Dennis Fitch did exatcly that on a DC10 !

And would his life insurance deny a claim because of what he did? If so, the whole life insurance business is a darn scam.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Snoopy wrote:

My post and what the insurance meant was in the context of a private ga plane.

I know Snoopy. But that doesn’t change the whole story. If I am i.e. on vaccation somewhere and get transported by a GA type commercial airplane which crashes and my next ones get denied payout because I held a pilots license, then something is very wrong. And in that context, an airliner is nothing else than a commercial operation as well.

I had this discussion once already in that sense of the highest rated pilot on an airplane automatically becomes PIC: That would imply that no ATPL type rating instructor and CFI and what not could ever fly as a passenger on an airliner where he is higher or equally qualified than the flight crew as if something happens while he sleeps in 19 B he would be held responsible?

That can not be the case and we know it. If he was on board and the crew asks for his help, then I’d say the moment he becomes a flight crew member of that operating crew there might be a case.

You know, what really gets me to dispair on this legal CYA b.s. is that today a lot of people are too scared to help in a traffic accident due to their fear of legal consequences, because even if they do save someone’s life, they can be prosecuted for “overstepping” their qualifications, as happened to a nurse I know. Thanks to some of her bosses who came down on the prosecutor trying to screw her over with a ton of bricks it did not happen, but that is the situation we are today legally, not only in aviation..

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

I don’t think there are any known cases where a pilot flying as a passenger was held liable purely because he was more experienced.

Previous threads e.g. here.

That would make a mockery of GA flying.

There were some rare cases, IIRC in the US (also discussed here before) where a CFI (an FAA instructor) was held liable for an accident on a flight on which he claimed he was a passenger. That sort of thing is clearly a more tricky area. Not applicable to this topic though.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

JasonC wrote:

On Flyer forum it is asserted that Rutherford was in the left seat,

In the CBC article linked here somewhere (and on Pprune), there’s a selfie of him after the accident. While to me it looks like it’s been taken in the back, I’m not that familiar with the Malibu Someone who is should be able to tell which seat he occupies in that image.

Nobody capable of flying a plane is going to be sitting in the back during flight, when there is a front seat available.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Nobody capable of flying a plane is going to be sitting in the back during flight, when there is a front seat available.

I didn’t say that. Read the article.

I better find the time to do a degree in languages then

I won’t be near a PC for a while, and my search for an anonymous mod (always a popular option on forums, seemingly) has not yet turned up anybody, so keep this non contentious otherwise the thread will be cleaned up and locked.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Mooney_Driver wrote:

And would his life insurance deny a claim because of what he did?

No. All the life insurance and travel insurance policies I have ever seen say something like (paraphrased) “Except for when on an aircraft in airline service…” So you’re always covered when a passenger on an airline, regardless of whether the airline operates a C172 or an A380, and whether it’s chartered or scheduled. To get covered for non-airlines, you can usually get covered by buying a policy that explicitly covers it (at a cost, of course).

Last Edited by alioth at 11 Jul 19:15
Andreas IOM
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top