Legal Responsibilities of Flight Instructors
Hello All, I’ve been reading with interest the different previous posts on this matter but haven’t really had any answers. If you send a student solo and he/she has an accident/incident/infringement for whatever reason and causes damage to himself/herself/the aircraft/other aircraft/property/people.
Where does liability start and end with the Instructor or is it addressed on a case by case basis? In which case is there anything an Instructor can do to protect what possessions he/she has if found to be negligent. AOPA have UK Instructor Liability Insurance on offer, is it worth its salt? Anyone bought this policy and anyone had the misfortune of having to use it?
Overall weather conditions and the belief in that the student can do the job obviously plays a part in deciding whether to send someone solo, anyone got any other nuggets of information to avoid comeback on the Instructor?
I am also a little concerned about student records being used against Instructors in court, For eg: At some stage in training there might have been a mention that circuits were unsatisfactory, but after a few more hours he might be amazing at circuits but then have a major problem when actually solo. The 'unsatisfactory' term in the records surely cant mean the Instructor was negligent sending him solo.
We are however living in a blame society so we need to cover our @rses..
Last edited by Pieman007; 14th Dec 2007 at 15:18.