Flying is fun as it is. But the adrenaline-pumping aerobatics like a knife edge spinup or pulling off an inside or outside loop make flying a truly cosmic experience. Unfortunately, you don’t get to pull such plane stunts unless you participate in top airshows like EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
As always, safety comes first in aviation, whether you’re flying commercial airliners or exhibiting at fly-ins. The more reason why you need aviation event insurance when participating in air shows and other special aviation events. Fortunately, you can count on BWI to customize aviation event insurance policies for you, as you trust us with your commercial aircraft insurance or private jet insurance.
If you have myriads of questions regarding aviation event insurance, you’re in good company. In this piece, we’ll discuss what air show insurance covers, why you need it, and when to get it. Let’s jump in.
What Liabilities Does Aviation Event Insurance Cover?
Air shows and aviation events present different risks to pilots and aircraft owners, and event organizers. While these risks vary depending on your level of participation in the air show, your standard liability coverage excludes these risks in most instances.
For pilots and aircraft owners, these liabilities include:
Third-Party Damage
Third-party damage in an airshow can happen in many ways. First, lots of damage can occur if your aircraft is on a static display where event attendees interact with it at close range. For instance, some attendees may touch and unintentionally scratch your aircraft while admiring it. Remember, aviation events attract people from all walks of life, and not all know how to behave around an aircraft.
Also, strong winds or unexpected storms may loosen your aircraft’s tie downs and thrust it against adjacent planes. You may be responsible for the damages in such a case, but your liability insurance provider may not pay for such costs. But with air show insurance, you can have standalone coverage for third-party damage for the aviation event.
Air Stunts Gone Wrong
With a massive crowd of aviation enthusiasts cheering you on, and the innate desire to entertain attendees with your stunt skills, you may sometimes overdo it and end up biting the dust. Your insurance may deny liability if you don’t have special coverage for your air show exploits.
Some insurers exclude aerobatics such as fly-bys and formation flying in their policies. They may even cancel your policy if they realize you attempted such stunts without updating your coverage first.
For aviation event organizers, the liabilities covered under aviation event insurance include:
Property Damage and Bodily Injury
You cannot rely on the airport’s liability coverage when organizing an aviation event because it excludes air shows and special aviation events. With big crowds and multiple vendors in your aviation event, property and bodily injury risks have a higher occurrence rate. Most incidents that cause bodily injury and property damage at an airshow often involve trips and falls and grass fires.
You can take separate policies to insure against these risks. These policies include:
- Bleachers liability to cover bodily injury that may be caused by collapsing bleachers
- Property insurance to cover leased and borrowed equipment such as golf carts and generators.
- Non-owned auto liability to cover vehicles operated by vendors and spectators.
Liquor Liability
If you permit the public sale of alcoholic beverages in your aviation event, you and the vendor would need liquor legal liability. However, if you provide complimentary drinks only to your VIP guests, you would only need host liquor coverage.
Volunteer Accidents
Aircraft enthusiasts are always ready and willing to volunteer for tasks such as onsite operations and guest ushering. Even though you may offer volunteers basic training to ensure they operate safely, accidents may still happen due to errors of omission or commission. Good thing aviation event insurance covers the costs you may incur through volunteer accidents.
Benefits of Carrying Aviation Event Insurance
Whether you’re a participating pilot or the organizer of an aviation event, you’ll enjoy the following perks of carrying aviation event insurance:
Keeps You In Good Books With Your Insurance
If you’re only using your plane to fly to an air show and not taking part in aerobatics or static display, you may not need event insurance. But if you’re actively involved in the event’s stunts, failing to carry air show insurance is risky. Besides the hefty financial burden you may incur if something goes south, your insurance provider may also cancel your policy or blacklist you.
Remember that most aviation underwriters are also air show lovers and frequent attendees. Thus, they’ll most likely notice your aircraft if you’re exhibiting at the same event. You can bet they’ll not honor a claim for a non-covered liability you incur during the air show.
The same goes for event organizers. If there’s property damage or bodily injuries in your aviation event, you’ll be in the clear if you have aviation event insurance. If not, prepare to pay hefty fees in compensation.
Gives You Peace of Mind
Aviation events shouldn’t cause you headaches, whether participating or organizing. Instead, you should capitalize on air shows to have fun and hang out with fellow aviators. Having sufficient liability coverage lets you enjoy your time in an aviation event worry-free.
When Should You Get Aviation Event Insurance?
You should purchase aviation event insurance before an air show, as soon as the official start date of the event is announced or confirmed. Buying your insurance early benefits you and the insurance provider. Your insurance company gets ample time to prepare a more inclusive policy accounting for factors such as weather and the expected crowd size. This gives you adequate coverage without paying exorbitant premiums.
How BWI Aviation Insurance Agency Can Help You
With decades of experience providing aviation insurance solutions, BWI is well-placed to offer customized aviation event insurance policies to pilots and event organizers. We know the effort and precautions it takes to host a safe aviation event or participate in one. That’s why we go out of our way and ensure you have the right policy, accounting for all the risk factors.
When you trust BWI to provide you with aviation event insurance, you can rest assured you’re well covered and enjoy your event worry-free. Think of it this way — If aviation events were Thanksgiving, BWI would provide the turkey.
Contact us and get your free quote today.
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