Hangarkeepers Liability
Aviation liability coverage protecting fixed base operators and hangar owners against damage to non-owned aircraft in their care, custody, or control.
What It Is
Hangarkeepers Liability is a specialty aviation coverage that protects fixed base operators (FBOs), maintenance shops, flight schools, and hangar owners against legal liability for physical damage to aircraft owned by others while those aircraft are in the insured's care, custody, or control. It responds when a covered aircraft is damaged during storage, towing, fueling, servicing, or routine ground handling.
Hangarkeepers limits are typically expressed two ways: a per-aircraft limit (the maximum payable for any single damaged aircraft) and a per-occurrence limit (the aggregate cap when a single event damages multiple aircraft, such as a hangar fire or windstorm). Coverage is bound on a legal liability basis, meaning the insured must be legally responsible for the damage.
It is usually written as part of a broader Airport Owners and Operators or Aviation Premises Liability policy.
Why It Matters for Brokers
FBOs and hangar tenants routinely hold millions of dollars of customer aircraft on their premises. A single windstorm, hangar door collapse, or tow tug accident can damage multiple aircraft simultaneously, and a turbine aircraft can easily exceed $10M in hull value. Brokers placing aviation business must size both per-aircraft and per-occurrence limits to the realistic mix of aircraft serviced, not to an arbitrary round number. Underinsuring this exposure is a common driver of aviation E&O claims, especially when a hangar fire causes a stacked loss across multiple jets.
Real-World Example
A regional FBO stores three aircraft overnight: a Cessna Citation, a King Air, and a customer Pilatus PC-12 in for maintenance. A lineman backs a tug into the Citation, causing $640,000 in damage to the wing leading edge and engine nacelle. The FBO's Hangarkeepers Liability with a $5M per-aircraft and $25M per-occurrence limit responds to the legal liability claim, paying repair costs after the deductible.
Common Mistakes
- 1Setting the per-occurrence limit equal to the per-aircraft limit, which leaves the insured exposed when a single event damages multiple aircraft in the same hangar.
- 2Failing to disclose turbine aircraft on the application, leading to underwriting at piston rates and potential coverage disputes when a jet is damaged.
- 3Treating Hangarkeepers as automatic under a general liability policy, when in fact CGL excludes care, custody, or control of personal property, including aircraft.
- 4Not increasing limits when the FBO begins storing larger or more valuable aircraft seasonally, such as during fly-in events or fractional repositioning.
How brokerageaudit.com Handles This
Submission Intake captures aircraft schedules, hangar capacity, and fuel handling exposures from FBO applications and routes them to aviation specialty markets. Policy Checker validates that per-aircraft and per-occurrence Hangarkeepers limits on the issued policy match the binder and the lease or service agreement requirements.