I got an e-mail the other day from a reader with a heart-wrenching story that should serve as a cautionary tale for all pilots. He told me about a good friend of his who was killed, along with the friend’s wife and kids, in an airplane crash last summer in Idaho. Because the two were so close, the pilot had made the friend the executor of his will. He was writing to me seeking advice about what had escalated into a contentious legal battle with the pilot’s insurance company.
I’d recently written a feature article about aviation insurance for the magazine, so the basics of liability and hull coverages were fresh in my mind. But this gentleman brought up a scenario I hadn’t considered while doing my original research. He said that when he first contacted the pilot’s aviation insurance company, he was told the policy would cover the cost of the airplane destroyed in the crash as well as funeral expenses. All the insurance company needed was the pilot’s logbook to prove currency and verify the date of his last flight review.
