Originally Posted by Flying Lawyer
When I was at the Bar I was also involved in “actual cases” in which insurers refused to pay relying upon breaches of aviation legislation which occurred in flight.
Even if you can't give precise details on these cases, it would be useful to get a flavour of the sort of breaches which the insurers used to deny payment.
Playing devil's advocate for the moment, surely it would be better to maintain the status quo?
At the moment the insurers are using technical breaches to wheedle their way out of some claims - let's say 20% by value, for the sake of argument. The insurers may be profiteering from this 20% windfall, but that seems unlikely given the small number of companies willing to underwrite GA risk. I understand that there is now only a single company underwriting all the risk in the London market. Although there are a number of companies offering insurance, it all goes back to this single underwriter. If the insurers aren't profiteering, then closing the loophole provided by the technical breaches will have to be made up by a proportional increase in premiums of 20%.
From my point of view, which would I prefer: my insurance premiums to increase 20% or to make sure my paperwork is in good order? I'm intending to keep it in good order anyway, so this is just a good incentive to make absolutely sure I do.
Even if you believe that paperwork breaches shouldn't form the basis for denying payment, surely you still have to draw the line somewhere? Would you be happy to pay a much bigger premium so that the insurance pays out even for accidents like the Solihull crash where there were numerous airworthiness and licencing lapses?
I'd be interested to hear about other cases, though, because I'm sure there are ways of getting caught out which haven't occurred to me. For the moment, though, we have to work with the system as it is, and the best solution for each of us would seem to be to make absolutely sure our paperwork is 100% correct so it never becomes a basis for the insurance company to refuse payment.
Of course, even with your best effort, it's still possible to make mistakes and overlook something. Perhaps, then, the best course of action is to find somebody knowledgeable to ramp-check you. Who fancies a fly-in somewhere to go through each other's docs and look for problems?