Originally Posted by
212man
why is the insurance company interested? It’s not their possession. If the owner tries to claim, they’ll just laugh!
Not sure how your insurance works, but all of them have a contractual obligation to review the claim and to provide cover within the policy terms.
Just laughing isn't an option.
They have to be able to show a justifiable reason, such as negligence, or the accident being outside of the policy conditions.
Legally it can get a bit grey. Many policies will have a blanket approval for type rated commercial pilots with X hours to perform maintenance checks or ferries etc, in this instance the question is then what amount of due diligence falls onto the owner.
If the policy only permits named pilots, then they have a good reason.
All this assumes he is actually insured.