Compensation Culture

[Canary Boy]

Curious to know how deeply claims are investigated, and by who, before a payout. From UKDJ:

“Since January 2017 (until 23 October 2017) the MOD has paid 45 individual claimants a total of £129,357.86 for compensation claims arising from military low flying activity. The single largest payment in this period was £17,088.72. Individual payments are attached.

In 2016 the MOD paid 37 individual claimants a total of £275,469.68 for compensation claims arising from military low flying activity. The single largest payment in 2016 was £102,250.00. Individual payments are attached.”

A table of individual payouts is appended to the article.

[Icare9]

Personally knowing one incident, extremely thoroughly.
It's taken several years for it to be resolved, with increments made only after rigorous checking and cross checking.
I'm certain that the chap is not overclaiming, but has to fight dogged resistance to any offer even approaching "fair".
I can't answer for others, but the one I do know about the RAF/MOD haven't paid a penny more than they have been made to pay.
It was a low flying incident that scared a large flock, causing deaths and loss of egg production and you can't simply restart a flock overnight.

It was no one's fault, absolutely not his and the pilots didn't overfly deliberately to scare the birds but the MoD still were rigorous in ensuring that no one more penny of taxpayers money was wasted. Unfortunately, the case meant 2 years lost production, and hard to rebuild his business.

[Canary Boy]

Over my 40+ years ‘in’ there was obviously a dramatic decrease in the number of LF sorties, given the disappearance of UK and US aircraft. If compensation is running at this level now, I dread to think what it must have been in the heady days of hundreds of hours of LF per week. Or is it the case that the culture of claiming was just not so endemic?

[Pontius Navigator]

I used to field RAF Police low flying investigation branch queries - who was there at that time type. I was always amazed by the detail that the FJ crews could provide to prove it weren't them.

I also had copy of the report in to a complaint by a friend's father. Again very thorough. The RAF simply cannot afford to ignore any complaints as a PQ would surely follow. Also a modest f^close off payment could backfire should the injury or wrong be much worse.

[Tengah Type]

I seem to remember several payouts, well over a million a time. for accidents to racehorses caused by low flying aircraft. This was back in the 70s and 80s.
Also some expensive overflights of mink or poultry farms. The present figures given are small change compared with then.

[Tankertrashnav]

Apparently after the Palomares incident in Spain in 1966, every farmer in a 100 km radius banged in a claim for "contaminated" milk, hens not laying, etc etc. Although most of these were spurious I believe the US just paid up, as dumping a couple of nuclear weapons on foreign soil had rather put them on the back foot!