Hangarkeepers liability

A 40 million dollar business jet spends the night in an FBO hangar; in the morning, a ground tractor with poor brakes dents its leading edge. The owner turns to the FBO, which turns to its liability policy and finds the clause excluding property in the insured's care, custody or control. Hangarkeepers liability fills that gap. It covers damage to third-party aircraft while they are entrusted to the insured on the ground: a maintenance shop (MRO), an FBO, an airport operator, a ground handler that tows or parks them. The airport or general liability policy of these businesses deals with damage to third parties, passengers and outside property, but it takes the entrusted aircraft out of scope because of custody. Hangarkeepers cover brings it back, sometimes as an extension of the same contract, sometimes through a separate policy. Underwriters limit it per aircraft and per occurrence, and that is where the risk lies. A heavy maintenance hangar can hold three widebodies at once, and a fire or a roof collapse under snow produces an accumulation whose value far exceeds the shop's revenue. Cover generally stops when the aircraft is in flight, and often as soon as it is taxiing under the insured's control, which sends the loss back to the owner's hull policy. It also excludes faulty work itself, the redoing of a badly fitted part, covering only the resulting damage. Not to be confused with the owner's hull insurance, which covers the aircraft wherever it is and may then pursue the custodian: the two policies often meet on the same loss.