In the event of an air disaster, the insurance manager of any major airline is usually, but not immediately, at the sharp end, although, of course, any public enquiry is a matter primarily for the lawyers. It is safe to take as a working example the loss of a British European Airways Vanguard aircraft, G-APEC, over Belgium when operating a scheduled flight London/Salzburg, on Saturday, Oct. 2, 1971, because all the passenger claims have long since been settled.

All major airlines have a set procedure for dealing with disasters which, among other things, includes the setting up immediately of an accident centre, in this instance at Heathrow, giving notification to senior officials of the airline, putting on a special flight to take out the investigation team, etc., to the airport nearest the scene of the disaster, making sure that the funeral directors appointed by the airline travel out on that flight, and so on. The accident centre acts as a pivot point in handling the delicate task of notifying the next of kin of the passengers and also dealing with all enquiries in that respect.

It should not be the custom of an insurance manager to go to the scene of the accident, because he cannot make any contribution to the rescue and salvage operations and also, when it comes to dealing with the claims in respect of the passengers, it is advisable to be completely detached.

The national Press, and perhaps to a lesser extent, television and radio, seized upon unfounded reports, with the result that it was almost a foregone conclusion that the disaster was caused by sabotage. Now the first question an insurance manager has to ask himself is, “Is it covered?” Bearing in mind the Press reports and the fact that the aviation policies were carrying the dreaded endorsement AVN 48, this did not make things particularly happy, because by virtue of that endorsement, claims arising out of any malicious act or sabotage were not covered.

It was fairly soon established, however, that it was the failure of the rear pressure bulkhead and consequent violent loss of pressurisation which caused the tragic death of 55 passengers and eight crew members.

By Monday, Oct. 4, the insurance market at large had been fully alerted. The aviation insurance market, and no doubt with the best of intentions, invariably agrees to pay a hull total loss within hours of the disaster. The immediate payment to the insured is funded by the broker and it is understood that it can take up to three weeks or more to achieve collection from underwriters. In one disaster, the money was in the bank within five hours of the loss!