Greg Farris wrote:
Received yet another mailing offer for disability insurance - from a
reputable company, ready to pay a $250-500K indemnity for complete
disability. The insurance covered accidents at home or at work, and there
were very few outright exclusions. Of the eight or so exclusions they
listed, two were different ways of saying "self-inflicted" or deliberate
injuries or suicide attempts. Two were wartime or insurrection
exclusions, and one was specific to use of nuclear weapons. All of the
other exclusions were related to general aviation or air sports "of any
form". They include all activity related to aviation other than "flying
as a paying passenger on a scheduled airline".

Doesn't this seem a bit over the top? They didn't even have a general
"acts of God" exclusion, but anything to do with GA and you're out. I
visited someone in a complete care hospital for accident victims a few
years ago. According to him, the large majority of quadraplegic's there
were (like himself) victims of automobile accidents. The second category
was from gunshot wounds in city gang and drug wars (no exclusion on the
insurance policy for involvement in criminal activities). After this came
houshold accidents. No airplane accidents.

I am not one of those who claim that GA is not dangerous - yet I don't
see my overall life risk as greater than that of someone who drives a
great deal. The per-hour risk of operating a GA plane is certainly much
higher than a car, but probably much lower than that of, say, a ladder.

GF


I suspect the main reason is all the famous figures who have died in GA
crashes. Even though they may represent a small fraction of the GA
population, they probably have huge claims which distorts the average
claim made by pilots. On the other hand, I doubt many famous figures
spend much time on the road or have any involvement with city gangs and
drug wars.