Snow Collapses Hangar at Dulles
This has to be every FBO and aviation insurance carrier’s worst nightmare to deal with. This week at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C., a hangar storing several large cabin business jets collapsed due to the weight of the snow from the blizzard that hit the area over the weekend.
There could easily be $150 million worth of aircraft totaled or damaged to the point they will be out of service for a long time. The hangar, which was a fairly new structure, is worth probably $5 million itself.
Whose insurance covers this one? The aircraft owners or the owner of the hangar?
I have asked our insurance agent Tom Chappell to keep an eye on this and write on the issue of insurance coverages and how this possibly could play out. For those of us in the aviation services businesses it will be an eye opener as to the amount and scope of the insurance coverage we have.
What a mess!
Make sure this doesn’t happen to you: http://www.chappellsmith.com/
This just hits the bottom of my stomach every time I see the pictures! It reminds me of when Hurricane Charley came through Orlando Executive. We did not have any heavy iron damage other than an old DC-3 but, it still hurts to see any aircraft damage. I foreseeing this being a long drawn out case. I would believe this is an act of god, since the Hangars were so new. In that case, it would fall under the owner’s insurance. I’m no expert, just my opinion. Either way, not the kind of publicity we are looking for our industry.