MLBPA Insurance, The Lidle Crash & A Closet Full of Suits

I believe this chain of lawsuits began when Mrs. Lidle found out that
her husband's group policy provided for by the Major League Baseball
Players Assosiaction (MLBPA) would not be paying out any money to her,
as the accidental death clause wording allegedly specifically excludes
coverage if the player is piloting an aircraft when he dies.

It should give all pilots cause to contemplate for a moment how their
families would be provided for in the event that they are killed while
piloting a plane. What is your insurance situation?

My question about this case is what about the rest of his life
insurance? One wonders if there was any ... or if it too excluded
coverage if he died while piloting. One also wonders, if there was
any other coverage, why no mention is made of this. Perhaps so much
is being made of these suits (against the MLBPAs provider and Cirrus)
in order to get them to just "pay ... now go away" to avoid the
negative publicity to Cirrus and MLB and the MLBPA.

Mr. Lidle was really but a journeyman pitcher who got to the bigs
rather late in life (25), never made massive amounts of money (by MLB
standards) and whose career as a pitcher was almost over when he was
killed. For details on his career go to this excellent baseball
website:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lidleco01.shtml

Buying and maintaining (and insuring) a Cirrus was probably a
considerable drain on his finances if you consider the contract data
in the link I've provided.

I can only assume that the suits against Cirrus (and the MLBPAs group
insurance provider too I believe) are a result of the alleged refusal
of the MLBPAs provider to pay out ...

That's why the question of who was the pilot at the time seems
paramount to the suit although rather obvious to anyone who has taken
flight training all the way through to certification. In the absence
of anyone else to look to, Cirrus (unfairly I believe ... say what you
will about the parachute) is being targeted. One also wonders what
the premiums must have been on the aviation insurance for a relatively
novice pilot flying a somewhat high performance plane. No doubt it
was quite a step up in speed and complexity from the plane in which he
got his ab initio training.

The most recent suit against Mr. Lidle's estate seems to be merely an
effort to make sure that the person whose home was damaged gets
adequately compensated for the trouble. And after all, a plane was
flown into this person's home (apparently while the person was
there !!!) ... it should hardly be this person's insurance company
that ultimately pays for this incident. There are no doubt other
legal negotiations between this person and several other parties ...
but of course suing the widow via the estate of the deceased is the
most inflammatory (and therefore "newsworthy" ) to the media.

I suspect this is probably an unfortunate example of someone flying
while inadequately insured to provide in case of his death while
flying. One can only hope that it is not a case where Mr. Lidle's
hobby only came to light to his non-aviation insurance providers after
the crash.

PPL-A SEL (Canada)

P.S. Another New York Yankee died while piloting his own plane back
in the 70s ... a great catcher, Thurman Munson. His career stats are
he

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/munsoth01.shtml