instructor insurance

[essouira]

A student was taxying with one of the instructors where I work and they hit a rut in the muddy grass which turned the a/c to clip the rudder of a parked a/c (this is as it was described to me). It sounded like the sort of thing that could happen to anyone. The school a/c was undamaged.
The instructor has been asked to pay the excess on the insurance (about £500 I believe) to pay for repairs to the parked a/c. It got me thinking about whether this is standard practice and whether I should get some insurance in case it ever happened to me.
What happens at other schools ? Does anyone know whether it is, in fact, possible to get insurance of this type ?

[fenfly01]

I have had instructors damage aircraft before (completely accidentally), including a crankshaft on a new engine! It happens (in any job )and i don't demand the excess off them - I would only be more interested if this became a regular occurance. They'd be too nervous to fly otherwise.
FF1

[EGBKFLYER]

AOPA do instructor insurance but I don't know what it covers...

[Whopity]

Most instructors have no insurance at all; few have there own personal liability cover (if you can get it) and you are most probably not covered by the aircraft policy either. Check with your employer to see what, if any cover you have.

[distaff_beancounter]

Is this another matter that differs according to whether the intructor is working for the school as an employee or as a self-employed sub-contractor?

I am not a lawyer, but I always understood that an employer cannot seek any financial recompence from an employee who damages any of that employer's property. Even where the employee is clearly negligent, the employer still cannot claim, but might have grounds for sacking the employee.

An employee should automatically be covered by the employer's Employers Liability Insurance and Public Liablity Insurance.

If an instructor does agree to be treated as self-employed then it would be prudent to check just what he is insured for before he starts work. His biggest uninsured risk may not be damage to an aircraft. What would be the situation if a student was seriously injured or killed in circumstances where negligence, by his self-employed instructor, was alleged?