The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) issued a statement to all commercial operators on Wednesday – 05/04/2017. In the CAA’s statement which was sent via email, it stresses that all commercial operators must make sure their insurance cover is EC Regulation (758/2004) compliant.
So what does this mean for commercial operators? In truth, not a lot. It’s simply now a requirement that any insurance schedule issued by an insurer details that its cover meets the minimum requirements for EC Regulation (758/2004).
Simply put this is a change that happens at the insurer’s end, but it’s something that any operator should still know about and understand.
The CAA have stated that any application for permissions (PfCO/PfAW) whether they be new, variations or renewals must have insurance cover that provides evidence of such compliance, if not it will cause delays to application processing times, or at worst denial for permissions and that means lots of ground time.
When flying via my company Dronely Ltd, we work with Coverdrone for our commercial insurance needs, but other big players in the ‘drone insurance’ scene have been quick to act, such as Moonrock.
Coverdrone even have the ‘Fully compliant with EC 785/2004’ tag on their landing page of their website: www.coverdrone.com
Moonrocks MD – Simon Ritterband was quick to send a message to the ARPAS – Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems user group to let them know that they were on top of things and would be sending out an email to all their clients.
So what do you need to look for in the insurance documents to make sure you as an operator or the operator you are hiring is compliant? Simply make sure the insurance documents mention EC 785/2004.
If you want to read the full breakdown of what EC 785/2004 is, then head to EUR-Lex– the Official Journal of the European Union.
Alternatively, you can read up on EC 785/2004 from the UK Parliment publications website. For more information, check out Dronely Ltd.
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