Any CFI's sued by students / families after crash?

gliderboy

Well-Known Member
Teaching some youngsters now and am concerned about my liability should one of them hurt / kill themselves after they're on their own. I only seldom instruct (and earn very little at it), so I'm reluctant to take out insurance.

Anyone have any scare stories to share?
 
I can't think of anyone off the top of my head, but I'm sure it's happened in today's society. Of course most people probably don't bother because the majority of CFIs are dirt poor so they'd just be wasting their time.

This is one reason I'm pretty anal about record keeping though. Log maneuver/knowledge area word for word as it's in the FARs and log a lot of ground on every subject listed. This has bitten people I know in the rear pretty badly.
 
Teaching some youngsters now and am concerned about my liability should one of them hurt / kill themselves after they're on their own. I only seldom instruct (and earn very little at it), so I'm reluctant to take out insurance.

Anyone have any scare stories to share?

If you are having those feelings, should you really be turning them loose on their own? I never signed off a student until those feelings were gone, and I felt comfortable putting my family in their airplane.
 
It will be interesting to hear the response to this question. gliderboy, it certainly could happen, and there is probably decent liability exposure in theory if it's a student solo. But you might want to start your research with this article. It's from 1996 but AFAIK there hasn't been much change since then.

Tiger By the Tail?
 
This is way back around 1995/1996. I had a friend who was a CFI. A local flying club asked him to help reposition a 172 about 40 miles for a student so he did. The destination airport was icy and in roll out he slid off, hit a snow bank, flipped it over on it's roof. He and his student took an ambulance ride to the ER just for a checkout and were fine. The clubs insurance said "tough poop, he's not listed on the insurance". After several months, the club pressured the insurance into paying. Frankly, I think the only reason they did is because enough time passed that they were assured there was no medical liability and they so they wrote the check for hull damage, since it's a small ticket thing. It very easily could've turned out much much worse.

Honestly, in this litigious society with everyone trying to make a buck and blood hound lawyers just looking for the next income stream, I think you're a fool to not have some basic liability coverage as a CFI. It's not that expensive. You spend $60,000+ to get to the point where you can teach someone and then worry about $300/year to help protect your butt? Not sensible.
 
One of the former co-owners of the last plane I was a part of was retired USAir (and a complete asshat). He owned a 172 that he leased back to the local flight school. Student and instructor went up and flew it into a mountain in IMC. Investigation showed the aircraft was in operational shape and had no bearing on the accident. Family of the dead CFI and the badly injured student both sued him. They ended up settling for less than the insurance cap, but the owner was still sweating bullets for several years during the process. This is the reason I would never consider a leaseback.
 
Family of the dead CFI and the badly injured student both sued him. They ended up settling for less than the insurance cap, but the owner was still sweating bullets for several years during the process. This is the reason I would never consider a leaseback.


Why is it that this is normal with airplanes, but no one sues Hertz or a car dealer when someone is involved in a traffic fatality? Are there better expert witnesses when it comes to automobile civil defense cases? (I know there are many more of them out there).
 
They ended up settling for less than the insurance cap...

I understand why people do this as it's generally the only option, but this is also one of the reasons the problem continues and insurance losses are so high - resulting in almost unbearable commercial insurance rates. Lawyers see these as almost a guaranteed pay out if they can drag it out and make litigation look like a real possibility.
 
I was concerned about it as a CFI. I didn't have much back then either. After building up savings now I would not consider instructing any more at this point in my life. Even if you document everything the cost of a good lawyer is going to be tremendous.

Here is what I found as far as AOPA CFI insurance goes. IMO, the coverage is a joke.

Benefits Summary for CFI Non Owner Insurance

As a CFI, you're covered for loss or occurrences arising from your professional liability during completed flight instruction services, flight reviews, or a check ride conducted by you in a non-owned aircraft.
  • $3,000 Medical Payments coverage for each passenger including the insured
  • $1,000 Personal Effects coverage
  • $10,000 Search and Rescue expense coverage
  • $10,000 Runway Foaming and Emergency expense coverage
  • Legal defense costs are in addition to the limit of liability purchased.
[...more...]

The NAFI insurance is quite a bit better (although I'm sure costs quite a bit more)...

Additional policy features and benefits for the NAFI CFI Insurance Program include*:
  • Up to $5,000 in legal defense costs if the FAA or civil authority takes pilot certificate enforcement or civil penalty action against you
  • Bodily injury coverage options up to $200,000 each person
  • Options of up to $150,000 ADL limits
  • Coverage for personal use of a non-owned aircraft
  • Coverage for aircraft owner's loss of use claim
  • Up to $1,000 No-Fault deductible coverage if ADL purchased
  • Lower premiums offered for NAFI members holding a current NAFI Master CFI accreditation
  • Coverage available in Alaska (additional charges apply)
[...more...]

Read the fine print on them.

It appears as though neither protects against your own personal liability as far as getting sued through civil court goes though. That is where the high dollar awards are.

As a pilot at an airline I am mildly concerned about getting sued as well. Perhaps my fears are unfounded. But think of this scenario. We hit turbulence at altitude, passenger hurts ankle. Gets a lawyer:

As a lawyer, I would ask these questions:

Did you obtain information on known turbulence reports?
Did you obtain information on predicted turbulence?
Did the airline DX plan around these reports (in our FOM it states DX will, truth is they NEVER do)? As PIC why did you not ask for an alternate route? Never mind pretty much every where we got there exists only one way to get from A to B (preferred routes).

Personally, at my commuter, I don't know anyone who views the NOAA/FAA weather charts prior to starting the day. I'm sure a select few do, but most do not. I'm sure it's probably more prevalent at the major level, and I'd bet they also plan around known areas of turbulence.
 
The NAFI insurance is quite a bit better (although I'm sure costs quite a bit more)...

Last I checked the coverage rates are the same for the straight Avemco vs the NAFI-Avemco policy, but as you said the coverage is much better with NAFI... it's the only reason I have a NAFI membership (which is an otherwise useless organization in my opinion).

Edit: Here are the rate sheets

http://www.avemco.com/NAFI/Rates.aspx
https://www.avemco.com/CFINonOwned/Rates.aspx
 
If you are having those feelings, should you really be turning them loose on their own? I never signed off a student until those feelings were gone, and I felt comfortable putting my family in their airplane.
That may be the case, but mistakes still happen and can come back on the CFI even if their training was adequate. This is why I don't really plan on instructing after I get another full time flying job, the liability and risk to my livelihood that is completely out of my hands isn't really worth it to me.
 
Read the fine print on them.

It appears as though neither protects against your own personal liability as far as getting sued through civil court goes though. That is where the high dollar awards are.


Usually in my day job (which involves instructing about software/consulting about software), this is covered by a different type of insurance, called "Errors and Omissions." Liability would only cover something I was directly did, which resulting in damage somehow. If it is my advice, that you either fail to act upon appropriately, or don't find satisfactory, and then suffer a loss, it would be an E&O policy that covered me. This was fairly expensive insurance, BTW. And I doubt anyone would write such a policy for a CFI.

The good news, though, if you aren't rich, you probably won't get sued either. Lawyers don't generally sue when they don't think they will get paid...
 
So, I've already made the point where I think insurance is a very good idea... but I'd also like to say that I think people exaggerate the risk a CFI shoulders. First you/your student needs to have an accident, then there have to be some justifiable damages, then it needs to be something where there's at least some hint of fault/negligence, then (and almost the most important) you need to be attractive enough for a lawyer to want to pursue you.

I personally know nobody who's bee sued in aviation. I know several people who've been sued outside of aviation.

I instruct because I enjoy it and it enhances my life, I take some reasonable measures to help protect myself, and I live my life without fear. If you dont want to instruct that's fine, but to not do it out of fear for liability (particularly if you are not a high net worth person) is a bit silly in my opinion.

I also think it's silly to over-insure. Sure you could look at worst case scenarios and scare yourself into either not flying or carrying so much insurance that you cannot afford to fly...or you can be somewhat realistic with typical bad-day scenarios, realistic damages you could face, and insure appropriately. Bigger coverage is really just that much more for the scumbag lawyers to suckle at... again, just my opinion.
 
Document everything thoroughly. If you taught them everything that the regulations require, and they demonstrated proficiency in all of these areas how does this liability come back to a CFI? Furthermore, when a student does a checkride, is not the check ride examiner also partially liable for passing the student on his checkride? Does liability for a student you trained follow you for the rest of your life? Or once they have their certificate, are they not legally required to follow the regulations themselves as they have been taught? Then would not burden of liabillity in an accident fall on that certificated pilot rather than his/her former instructors?

I'm interested to hear Derg 's take on this issue since he ran into some issues with his CFI signature being in some student's logbooks years ago.
 
Document everything thoroughly.


Umm, be careful how you write your notes. If you write down "needs more work on stalls," and they never fly with you again, and have a stall/spin accident - guess who is now on the hook for not teaching that :)

EDIT: For areas that still need work, I write down "in progress"
 
Umm, be careful how you write your notes. If you write down "needs more work on stalls," and they never fly with you again, and have a stall/spin accident - guess who is now on the hook for not teaching that :)

I agree with that, but how would the student not have a warm body sitting next to them in a plane if no one endorses them? The next guy signing the endorsement would be on the hook wouldn't he? The person signing the endorsement must have been the one that did all of their training required by the FARs. If I write "needs more work on stalls." there's no way he is going to have a solo endorsement from me until he has proven proficiency, and I have made a record of that proficiency.
 
If I write "needs more work on stalls." there's no way he is going to have a solo endorsement from me until he has proven proficiency, and I have made a record of that proficiency.


Don't write something like that in someone's logbook.

I meant what you write down in your own student records (I keep a little black book that I keep notes on students in).
 
Don't write something like that in someone's logbook.

I meant what you write down in your own student records (I keep a little black book that I keep notes on students in).

Oh ok, yeah I gotcha. Typically, I only write down what they were taught in their logbook. Separately, we have a computer system that keeps track of all notes for each flight the student has when there was something not to proficiency.

On that note, when teaching stalls or spins. Remember to write "Power on stall, recovery." I'm always catching my students forgetting to write the recovery part...
 
Oh ok, yeah I gotcha. Typically, I only write down what they were taught in their logbook. Separately, we have a computer system that keeps track of all notes for each flight the student has when there was something not to proficiency.

On that note, when teaching stalls or spins. Remember to write "Power on stall, recovery." I'm always catching my students forgetting to write the recovery part...



That's a really good point!
 
Back
Top