Over the past 3 years, property owners and contractors have increasingly utilised helicopters for craning operations on building sites in lieu of traditional mobile cranes. The use of a Heli Crane as opposed to their more conventional counterpart has yielded significant advantages for sites with complex access issues including those in built up areas, remote locations, with insufficient access space or poor terrain. Benefits include cost and time reduction, but also a reduction in impact and inconvenience associated with shutting down a public road to allow for mobile crane access.
In terms of insurance coverage, it is important to highlight that policy wordings have not kept pace with this new approach to craning causing potential exposures for contractors and property owners.
Aircraft exclusions
Traditional liability policies will generally have broad exclusions in relation to liability arising from aircraft with ‘aircraft’ often being defined broadly to include Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) and helicopters. As such, under a typical liability policy, the use of aircraft of any type and for any purpose would mean that personal injury or property damage would not be covered. Conversely most liability policies would provide cover for the use of a fixed or mobile crane (particularly on a construction site) and any damage or injury arising as a consequence of their use.
As matters currently stand, property owners and construction contractors will not and do not have cover under their usual insurance policies for incidents arising from the lifting of goods by helicopter.
Risk and insurance considerations
In terms of managing the risks arising from the use of Heli Cranes, additional steps need to be taken to ensure that the operator of the aircraft is fully insured for all activities associated with the lifting operations. Cover for the use of a Heli Crane, or indeed, any heavy lifting being undertaken by helicopter needs to include general liability for any injury or damage which occurs should the goods being lifted be dropped or cause impact damage. Such insurance should be provided by an aviation provider and extend to cover any liability incurred by the contractor or property owner arising out of the heli-lifting operations. Whilst aviation liability for such activities could be procured by the contractor or property owner on an ad hoc basis, the cost of such insurance would be prohibitively expensive.
In relation to property damage to any works under construction, contractors need to ensure that their contract works policy will extend to provide cover for both “goods on hook” (i.e. those goods being lifted) and resultant damage to the “works under contract” (i.e. if the goods on hook fall and result in damage to the construction project itself).
Consideration should also be given to how third-party property damage will be managed. For example, if a motor vehicle is damaged by falling goods or a member of the public is injured. An appropriate risk management plan needs to be developed to ensure that there is no risk to public safety during any heli-operations.
Informing your insurer prior to aerial crane operations
Care should be taken to notify insurers if aerial crane services are being provided on a site. This includes providing detail on the duration of the engagement and the specific goods being lifted to ensure the policy will respond in the event of loss or damage to the works under contract.
For property owners it is also important that insurers are notified of heli-lifting activities, where they are planned, and to obtain confirmation that damage to the existing operations will be covered in the event of a claim. In particular, property owners should check that in the event their insurer responds to a claim, they will seek to recover losses paid from the crane operator.
An example of a typical claim arising from the use of a Heli Crane includes the lifting of a HVAC unit onto the roof of a shopping centre which is then dropped onto the roof causing damage to both the shopping centre itself and third-party property. This is a prime example of where the use of a Heli Crane is advantageous as the shopping centre will be able to continue trading with no restrictions on public access as a result of any incidents.
It is expected that the popularity of Heli Cranes will continue to rise in light of the clear advantages over a traditional static crane tower. However, the risks associated with their use and the limitations under traditional insurance policies require unique consideration and tailored solutions to ensure adequate insurance protection is in place.
