Tripp,

TMI Tripp, WTMI

I'm never jogging again

I am never leaving my house again. OOP's, I just read lots of people are accidentally killed in their homes every year.

May he rest in peace.

BUT

So what's the verdict? In the event the front falls off then the airplane shall be flown outside of the environment? What about minimum crew requirements? Making the wings out of cardboard or cardboard derivatives? Or rubber?

http://www.break.com/index/the-front-fell-off.html

Stay home and commit suicide then?

I just spoke with the VP of Underwriting for a major aviation US based insurance company.
I had a question on my policy and while I had him on the phone inquired as to the recent Lancair accident and his ad-lib impressions.

His take was that the pilot will not be charged, but the insurance company and the individual will take major hits. This means that the carrier will end up paying up to the policy limits and the pilot will be sued individually. He said that there is no policy limit that would be purchasable to protect your assets in this situation.
The VP said that this case will take 5-7 years to wind it's way thru the courts, with the carrier taking the responsibility in hiring the attorney's to defend the pilot.
This is one carrier's take, assuming that the guy was insured.

I'd love to know what that means "specifically" and why.

"in this situation".

Is this situation different than say a prop falling off a plane and landing one someone's' head?

Alejandro?

I guess he is assuming from the victim's earning potential that his family's wrongful death settlement will most likely exceed $5M. It's hard to get higher limits if you are not associated with a fleet.

The aircraft, if insured, probably carries $1M like most of us.

The assumption the insurance executive is making is that the plaintiff's will think it worth it to go after the guy's personal assets. That's a tough call to make. 1. The pilot has to have significant liquid assets to make it worth a run at him. 2. The victim's family has to decide whether or not to prolong this process by entering into further litigation. Some folks just want to move on.

ALL of this is just speculation, the facts have to be explored. Obviously I'd be on alert if I was the manufacturer of the engine and propeller (or the shop that did the work, if not the owner) - as you guys have alluded to.

While I did not enjoy reading most of this - I was hoping for more on the decission making process of ditching (which I think about a LOT since a very minor incident over Lampasas at night & 7k) - I would like to thank Kelly & Babar for their input.

I often recall from previous posts, Kelly's previous statement of "brain shrinking to the size of a pea." It has encouraged me to memorize, to a greater extent, the emergency check lists.

If that is true, every one of us should be going to great length to protect our assets legally.

The "lottery ticket" mentality that exists in this country is a serious problem. If you can't buy insurance adequate to protect you and your family in the event of an accident then you must resort to other means to accomplish that objective.

Wow. Regardless of whether this thread is atypical of what is usually seen here, the fact is that it happened, and I'll bet I'm not the only one that now feels that this is not a good place to "bare my soul."

I'm with Ed. A reasonably prudent pilot would also know there's a decent chance of swimmers, waders, and surfers in the water. If he hit one of those, would we all yell at him to land on the beach?

I'm also with Tripp and others... some of y'all need to chill.

What's that Sheriff?

Are you trying to tell the lynch mob to go home?