Aviation Hull War and Allied Perils Policy (LSW 555D)

The Aviation Hull War and Allied Perils Policy is the London market wording that buys back, for the hull and often spares, the war perils that the all-risks policy excludes. On June 11, 2025, Mr Justice Butcher handed down Russian Aircraft Lessor Policy Claims ([2025] EWHC 1430 (Comm)) in the London High Court. It held that the leased aircraft stuck in Russia were lost as of March 10, 2022, through an act of the Russian state. Lessors therefore had to recover from their war risks insurers, not their all-risks insurers. The hull wording at stake is the Aviation Hull "War and Allied Perils" Policy, LSW 555D. It covers loss of or damage to the hull, and often to spares, that the all-risks policy excludes through AVN 48B (Aviation, London market clauses). Only paragraph (b) of that clause stays excluded: hostile detonation of a nuclear weapon. So war, declared or not, and civil war come back; strikes and riots; political or terrorist acts; malicious acts and sabotage. Confiscation, nationalization, seizure or requisition by a government come back too, along with hijacking and unlawful seizure in flight. Confiscation by the state of registration is often sub-limited, and lessors fight over it. Like other aviation war covers, the policy can be canceled on seven days' notice. It terminates automatically on the outbreak of war between the five powers (UK, US, France, Russia, China) or a hostile nuclear detonation. War liability sits outside LSW 555D, in the AVN 52 endorsement to the liability policy. A lessor looks mostly at the split between the operator's possessed policy and its own contingent policy, which responds only if the first fails.