General aviation insurance

General aviation insurance is the insurance of airplanes, helicopters and gliders flown outside scheduled air transport, from the private owner to business aviation. In 2023, US general aviation recorded 1,097 accidents, 186 of them fatal, over 28.4 million flight hours, according to the Air Safety Institute of the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association). That works out to a rate of 3.86 accidents per 100,000 hours. No scheduled carrier would accept that figure, which makes general aviation a line of insurance of its own. ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) defines it by subtraction: all civil aviation other than scheduled air services and non-scheduled air transport for remuneration. It covers the single-engine owner, the flying club, the flight school, aerial work and business aviation, where one jet costs more than an old narrowbody. The market underwrites the pilot first: named, or defined by licenses, ratings and hours on type. Then the declared use (private, business, hire, instruction), which acts as a condition of cover, then agreed value and the liability limit, often a combined single limit. In London the standard form was long AVN 1C (AVN: Aviation, London market clauses), replaced by AVN 1D. In Europe, Regulation (EC) No 785/2004 sets minimum liability by takeoff mass and per passenger. Losses come from landings, loss of control, weather and fuel, far less from the airframe. Business aviation flown by professional crews, though, is underwritten closer to airlines than to the flying club, and one insurer does not write both with the same team.