Introduction
When doing business as a person or company, you can protect your assets by purchasing Professional Liability insurance. This insurance contract provides you with liability coverage against financial consequences of your liability should you or your employees (or contractors that you hire to perform a certain activities) cause damages to a third party. Being the person in charge of insurance procurement (or being interested in such matters), you want to make sure that your company is properly covered.
This document should help you with reading and understanding the content of your insurance contract to assess whether you are properly insured (or not).
Remember: drones are aircraft and third party liability insurance is mandatory when flying a drone within the European Union. Please note that light drones should not be considered as model aircraft under Regulation (EC) 785/2004 or similar local regulation when they are used for professional purposes. As a consequence, they must be insured.
STEP 3 - Check the exclusions listed in your contract
Professional Liability insurance coverage is usually quite extensive as long as Accidental Bodily Injury and Accidental Damage to Property are concerned, e.g.:
The Insurer shall have no liability under this policy to provide any indemnity or benefit for any legal liability arising from or in connection with:
(x) any work undertaken airside or on aircraft
This exclusion relates to the risks covered. In such case, you need to liaise with your insurer or its agent, or your insurance broker to find out precisely whether your insurance company can cover your drone-related risks considering the activity you envisage to perform, or if you need to purchase a dedicated insurance policy.
This exclusion relates to the damage you may cause. In particular, pure financial losses such as the interruption of traffic if your drone flies away and enters an area managed by an ATC (i.e. an airport), would be excluded.
Conclusion
- Ask for an Insurance Certificate - To make sure that you are insured, ask your insurance company to provide you with an Insurance Certificate evidencing that you are protected when you fly drones.
- Fly responsibly - Insurance companies expect the insured to behave in a responsible manner. Similarly, the insured should rely on their insurers to protect them in case of unexpected events.
- In case of dispute with your insurer, contact your local ombudsman - Misleading fine prints and abusive claim rejection are matters to be submitted to the local ombudsman.
- Act responsibly - During any exchange with your insurer, be it written or verbal, behave as you are expected to behave when you fly your drone, i.e. act responsibly. The Insured’s intentional misbehaviour is likely to result in the absence of coverage.