Liability of a Pilot Renter
The most common problem among pilots who rent out aircrafts is they are not aware if they have insurance protection when it comes to the unit they are flying.
This seems to be a problem that has existed since aviation insurance came to be. The problem is when pilots rent or borrow a plane, they may or may not have insurance coverage when it comes to claims for injured passengers or other concerns that may come up from driving the aircraft they rented. In most cases, they are not even insured against damage claims on the aircraft. Many pilots are not even aware of this and will only become aware of it when claims crop up and then the quandary would only be on their own shoulders to bear.
While it is easy to say that pilots should make sure that the aircrafts they are renting have insurance policies that include some kind of protection for them and their passengers while they are taking it for a chartered flight, the non-compulsion on the part of aircraft-for-rent operators to disclose such information to pilots is a glaring problem that until now has yet to get a solution.
While these operators are required in some states to disclose what coverage the aircraft they are renting out is on, they are not compulsed legally to give out the details of the coverage. In some states, there is a legislation that asks for renter pilots to have liability protection. Others have policies that protect renter pilots on their fleet of rental aircrafts.
The most lauded solution to this problem so far is the “non-ownership” aircraft insurance made available by a number of insurers.
If you are the pilot of your own aircraft, your insurance probably covers your protection during damage of your aircraft and your plane will be protected as well, but this does not necessarily follow for the renter pilots.
It is typical for an aircraft policy to offer hull coverage, which is on the aircraft’s damage or physical loss and the liability coverage or passengers’ or other persons’ claims for bodily injury or property damage.
When an accident happens, the coverage of the liability policy would only cover that of the aircraft and the third persons or the other persons injured other than the renter pilot. The policy protects the owner yet it leaves the borrower or the renter with a problem that he has to solve himself. Even the aircraft could very well be protected.
The best solution to this would have to be the inclusion of renter pilots in insurance policies. So far, only the non-ownership insurance policy seems to be the only thing that offers protection to renter pilots. Divided still into two parts similar to that of a typical aircraft insurance, this policy is offered at a nominal cost for the liability coverage while the hull coverage comes out as more expensive. The liability part is not optional while the one covering the hull is. With this option available, the protection satisfaction is still not complete because renter pilots are only opting to go for the non-optional liability coverage, foregoing the hull coverage that is important as well.
by Maria-Goldsmith 19 years ago