Sad day for my aviation. 2 days ago, we had a stormy night at our airport, which caused extensive damage to my hangar. Guts were up to 60 kts. Due to the incorrect completion of the roof, it has separated from the lower structure and folded out. During this manoeuvre, the frame from the ceiling fell back into the hangar and hit my TB20 (SN2220) and a C210.
The C210 has less damage but needs to be checked check.
Mine does not need to check; it is AOG, I guess. Today we will dig deeper into it, as well Socata is informed about it since it is way beyond the SRM’s practices…The cabin and the stabilzer section is untouched.
Before you ask, the insurance does not cover such events or the airport.
Keep you posted.
Very sad to see these pictures and what happened to you. However, it looks repairable.
I hope you get back into the air later in 2022.
Why would insurance not cover storm damage? I assumed that would be exactly the kind of event that would be covered.
And how about the company that constructed the hangar? They should have insurance.
Very sorry for you.
These storm events in a hangar are a reminder to check what cover your hangar landlord carries. Typically your aircraft insurance will cover the event, but it is not unusual to find the landlord hangar insurance is not providing cover to tenants.
I don’t recall ever reading “hangar collapses” (or anything similar) as being an exclusion on any insurance policy I’ve had – I can imagine insurance companies fighting over which one has to pay (landlord/airfield’s insurer vs the aircraft owner’s insurer) but at the end of the day, I would hope that the aircraft owner’s policy would pay out and all that fighting would go on behind the scenes after the aircraft owner’s claim is settled.
Terrible to see that, sorry to hear, Zsolt.
I hope this is reparable!
Very sad to see, Zsolt, but why would the insurance not cover it (assuming you have hull insurance)? As for the hangar insurance: this might be tricky, as it prob90 won’t be easy to prove that the hangar was constructed incorrectly, as you write. That said, the airport should have some sort of cover.
I would dig into the insurance aspects carefully; first with your policy, then with the landlord. Perhaps you can find that there is actually coverage. If the damage is very costly (which seems to be likely), then also seek professional advice from an insurance solicitor and loss assessor.
For example, the landlord’s hangar policy might not cover contents. Hence, the insurer might say that the damaged aircarft are not covered.
However, the landlord may have liability coverage in addition to the building insurance. If you ask a lawyer to write a letter to claim on the liabiliy policy, e.g. that the landlord failed to have the building built/maintained/inspected/surveyed (or whatever is the case) correctly, then the insurer might engage. You can also try the same with the building contractor.
Regardless, if you are able, document the cause of the incident as thoroughly as possible. Photograph, take notes, and measurements of construction aspects that failed, before they are cleaned up and thrown away. Hundreds of photos, both near and far, of the failed elements. This may help significantly in proving a case if there was a real defect in the construction.
You can also engage a civil/structural engineer who is experienced with failures (i.e. a forensic engineer) to document the cause and write a report.
Best of luck.
Just because the hangar owner does not have insurance for such an event it does not mean he has no liability to you over this.
His property has crashed into your property and damaged it. Looks pretty simple in terms of liability to me. A discussion along these lines, followed by a solicitor’s letter if necessary, may prompt him to remember that he does have insurance or else negotiate a settlement with you.
However, a combination of airfield politics and someone not being worth litigating against often contrive to make the hardline position unviable – as @RobertL18C and I know well.
