Kyleb wrote:
menards wrote:
There are “stupid mistakes” like forgetting to put the gear down and wrecking a nice Mooney. Then there are “stupid mistakes” like this one. Taking off from a street with tight margins and no room for error. It doesn’t seem fair to me that an insurance co would have to pay for a stearman, a light pole and some traffic signals. Also the recovery towing/ops.
Think about these examples:
Let's say you're driving under the influence and have an accident. Does your auto insurance pay?
Let's say you close the garage door on your new Porsche. Does your insurance pay to have the door and the Porsche fixed?
Let's say you screw up with one of those turkey fryers and burn your house to the ground. Does your homeowner's pay?
Let's say you chop your fingers off with your tablesaw. Does your medical insurance pay?
Same thing with an airplane. Your track record is indicative of your inherent risk. Good track record in the air means you're relatively low risk and enjoy a relatively low premium. The opposite also applies. But the insurance company is gonna pay up when you prang the airplane, even if you make a dumb mistake (be it a physical mistake or a mental mistake).
These examples of stupidity you provide are all well and good and akin to the example of landing your nice mooney and forgetting to put the gear down. There are also many examples where your insurance WONT pay. For example:
You take that nice shiny new Porshe out of the garage and drive it to the track because you want to see what it can do. You think your being responsible testing its limits off of public roads. You spin out and damage the Porshe. Insurance is NOT paying your claim. You're left with a wrecked Porshe.
As your house is ablaze due to your turkey fryer incident and all your neighbors are out at the curb watching your posessions burn, the neighbor you dont like asks "When is the turkey done?" You return with a slanderous remark. Your neighbor sues you for defamation. While your insurance company whill pay for your belongings, they are nowhere to be found on the defamation lawsuit. That said if you can prove that your remark to be true, its not slander, and the insurance company will defend you all the way.
There are many other exclusions baked into insurance policies. More and more of these accidents are seeming to be extremely preventable and nothing more than bad judgement. Maybe if insurance companies clamped down on owners/operators, they would have a little pause before they decided to take off on a public road with minimal (zero) safety margins. It baffles me to hear that aviation insurance is just quick to pay for the collossially stupid.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
