What happens when you report a claim?

So you’ve just suffered your first aircraft accident and need to advise your Insurers. You call your broker and give him or her the bad news. What happens next?

Once your broker has advised the Insurer concerned, they will usually appoint an Assessor to handle all aspects of your claim on their behalf. In effect, the Assessor becomes the representative of the Insurer. The Insurer will not admit liability for your claim until the Assessor has reported to them and they are satisfied that the circumstances of the accident fall within the cover provided by your Policy.

The Assessor will usually make arrangements to recover the aircraft from the accident site and move it to a suitable AMO. Insurers will pay for the reasonable recovery cost of the aircraft to a suitable repair facility, which might also be your regular AMO.

If your aircraft cannot be recovered immediately, Insurers will also pay reasonable expenses incurred by you for the immediate safety of the aircraft.

In order to complete his Report, the Assessor will require copies of the following minimum documentation/information:

- the pilot’s license

- the last 3 pages of the pilot’s logbook

- a statement from the pilot regarding the circumstances that led to the accident

- the Certificate of Airworthiness and Certificate of Safety

- repair quotations (the Assessor will usually arrange these himself or in conjunction with you)

Depending on the circumstances of the loss, the Assessor may require additional information in order to complete his Report. The Assessor will present the Insurer with all the relevant factual information he has obtained plus, where applicable, additional information from you, any witnesses, engineers, the pilot, passengers, CAA and any other experts called in to assist in establishing the probable cause of the accident.

The Assessor’s function is to investigate the loss and to present facts. The Insurer is solely responsible for admitting or declining liability, although the Insurer may ask the Assessor to offer an opinion on any aspect of the loss.

Once the Insurer has admitted liability, and repairs have been completed (or a cash settlement has been negotiated) the Assessor will be instructed to draw a Release and Discharge Agreement for execution by you before funds are paid. The document will release the Insurer from any further liability arising from the same accident and enables the Insurer to close off on your claim. It is therefore important to ensure that you are satisfied with your settlement before signing the Release.

A final comment. In terms of all aircraft insurance policies, there is no “right of abandonment” to the Insurer. That is to say, the aircraft remains your property at all times, unless the Insurer elects to take it as salvage following a total loss settlement. However, should the Insurer not elect to retain the aircraft as salvage, and merely pays a total loss settlement, the responsibility of removing and/or disposing of the wreck will remain with you. Removing a wrecked aircraft from the side of a mountain can be extremely expensive. Not all aircraft insurance policies include Wreck Removal Costs automatically and you should check with your insurance broker to ensure that you will have this additional coverage if you should ever need it.