Damage on ground by Wake Vortex
 

Can a wake vortex off an aircraft actually cause damage to buildings on the flight path below?

If this is at all possible, does the airline involved carry any liability?

Yes, I remember seeing some pictures of a tiled roof that was caught by wake vortex. The effect was pretty bad.

I don't know about liability, but I suppose it varies from country to country

Many airports operate mitigation schemes for vortex-related damage, for example Heathrow and Birmingham. Details should be on their respective websites.

As with icefalls, it's very difficult to assign responsibility for a specific ground vortex damage event to a specific flight, so in practice probably not.

Cottage industry near Heathrow...

The Affect Aircraft Wake Vortices have on a Tiled or Slated Roof.

Though legally yes (in the UK, at least):

"Under Section 76(2) of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 legal responsibility for damage caused by aircraft rests with the operator of the aircraft concerned."

One of the basic tenets of civil law (at least Western one) is that whoever causes damage to a third party is liable for it and has to compensate the damaged party in full. That said, as has already been mentioned actually apportioning blame might be practically impossible in most cases.

Ciao,

Dg800

The BAA at Heathrow certainly used to operate a scheme where an insurance loss adjuster would visit any home that had, allegedly, suffered a vortex strike. This type of damage was easy to assess as it had a different characteristic to that caused by high winds and so the BAA paid compensation accordingly. A few dodgy characters would try and make dubious claims by dislodging tiles themselves.:=

As others have said it would be nigh on impossible to determine which individual airliner had caused it. Surprisingly, for me at least, was that vortex strikes were recorded many miles from the airport.