AVN 48B War, Hijacking and Other Perils Exclusion Clause
London aviation market exclusion removing war, hijacking, government seizure, terrorism and malicious acts from hull and liability policies, bought back in a separate war market.
An airline buys two policies that answer each other. The all risks hull and liability policy carries AVN 48B, which removes a list of perils in lettered paragraphs. First war, invasion, insurrection and usurped military power; the hostile detonation of a nuclear weapon; strikes and riots; acts for political or terrorist purposes. Then malicious acts and sabotage; confiscation, seizure or requisition by a government; hijacking. The hull war policy, written in London on the LSW 555 form, buys back what AVN 48B took out, except nuclear, which nobody gives back. On the liability side, the AVN 52 endorsement gives back the excluded paragraphs other than nuclear, under a sublimit the market cut to 50 million dollars after September 11, 2001. All the litigation sits on the boundary. Does a lost aircraft fall under the all risks policy or the war policy? The answer changes the insurer and often the amount, as lessors of aircraft stranded in Russia in 2022 argued for three years.
Aircraft leased to Russian airlines and kept in Russia after March 2022 were litigated in London on this boundary. The lessors first claimed under the all risks policies, arguing a loss with no military cause. On June 11, 2025, in AerCap v AIG and others, the Commercial Court held that the loss came from restraint imposed by the Russian state, a peril under paragraph (f) of AVN 48B. The war insurers had to pay. Those insurers were granted permission to appeal by the Court of Appeal on March 31, 2026.
AVN 48B, AVN48B, War, Hijacking and Other Perils Exclusion Clause
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