Helicopter Insured? (or is it?)
 

Heard a bit of information that may be of interest to everyone who has their helicopter insured (and made me glad I didn't bother with mine beyond passenger and third party liability.

An Oz operator recently lost his aircraft due to an accident - not pilot error nor any possible fault of pilot - Insurance company accepted they should pay - but then comes the rub.

Machine was purchased when the Oz dollar was very low against the US dollar and machine insured for purchase price. Now Aust dollar worth nearly 80c US. Machine is in theory worth much less but owner still has debts that relate to original costs of purchase.

Insurance company now says he over-insured his machine and is only paying roughly half of costs still owed on machine - owner, despite paying for insurance, might as well have had not bothered.

Well worth knowing how inurance company may act in event of a claim before signing up for a policy.

Typical insurnace company. Never pay up if you can avoid it! :mad:

It can be worked to the owner/operator's advantage, though: some years ago a certain Police Air Wing (not a hundred miles from here ;) ) wrote off a Squirrel, which was actually insured for the full replacement value. Force Command wanted the money, which would go back into general revenue and not on a replacement AS350.

A quiet word with the insurers saw the fine print invoked, and they replaced the write off with an equivalent machine for less cost, rather than pay out the claim and lose the aircraft to the air wing.

So I'm told, of course: this is a rumour network :p