Personal Accident Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Operators
Add personal accident insurance to your hot air balloon insurance plan if you operate a hot air balloon yourself. Personal accident insurance kicks in when you sustain an injury due to an accident or any other occurrences that result from the use of the hot air balloon for commercial or recreational purposes.
Personal accident insurance for hot air balloon operators works in three ways, specifically:
Provide compensation if you die due to a hot air balloon-related incident
Cover medical expenses, therapies, and financial losses if you sustain an injury due to a hot air balloon-related incident
Provide compensation if you sustain temporary or permanent impairment due to a hot air balloon-related incident. Common impairments covered are loss of limb and loss of sight. Loss of hearing is covered or not depending on which insurance company you decide to work with
Understand that personal accident insurance only covers one policyholder in most cases. If a hot air balloon has multiple operators, one must insure them with individual personal accident insurance policies. Looking for and purchasing personal accident insurance that allows the naming of additional insureds is also an option
Airside Vehicle Liability Insurance for Hot Air Balloons
Do you need to launch the hot air balloon in an airport or runway? If your hot air balloon causes an accident in the airport or runway’s premises and third parties sustain injuries or property damage, know that public liability insurance can’t help. And to solve this gap, add airside vehicle liability insurance to your hot air balloon insurance plan.
Airside vehicle insurance will compensate affected third parties (including the airport or runway’s management) if your hot air balloon causes injuries or property damage. Coverage for legal expenses such as administrative costs and attorney fees is also included.
Additionally, airside vehicle liability insurance doesn’t only apply to personal injuries or property damage caused by your hot air balloon but also to the vehicle you’re using to haul it out. In other words, say if you’re using a car in the runway or airport to haul the hot air balloon out and you crash on something, airside vehicle liability insurance will help cover the resulting expenses.
Airside vehicle liability insurance is an essential coverage if you’re planning to launch the hot air balloon on the airport or runway. Access won’t be granted if you don’t have this. So how much coverage do you need? Airport and runway managements will require you to get airside liability insurance having $1 million-$5 million coverage.
Hot Air Balloon Travel Insurance
Add travel insurance if you’re an enthusiast who loves to take your hot air balloon to events such as the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, Teton Valley Balloon Rally, Great Dono Balloon Race, and more.
A lot of investment is involved in joining a hot air balloon event. You don’t only spend for registration but also for lodging, travel, accommodation, and food. These costs are not refundable if ever the hot air balloon event is canceled due to weather, and other covered perils. In connection, hot air balloon travel insurance has cancellation coverage. This functions to recover all non-refundable costs. In other words, cancellation coverage sees to it that your investments aren't wasted when a hot air balloon event is canceled.
Hot air balloon insurance also provides coverage for medical care. Coverage for medical care applies if you sustain an injury or illness while on the way to a hot air balloon event.
Last but not least, your travel insurance will also cover missed flights. Obviously, this will refund or reimburse you if you miss your ride and need to board another flight for the day or reschedule your departure to a more convenient time.
What Insurance Do You Need for Hot Air Balloon Events?
The insurance policies above are solely useful for hot air balloon owners, operators, and owner-operators. What if you’re organizing a hot air balloon event? What types of policies do you need then? Useful policies you need to consider getting are general liability insurance, non-owned/hired auto insurance, equipment insurance, liquor liability insurance, event cancellation insurance, and workers compensation insurance.
General Liability Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Events
A hot air balloon event poses a lot of perils, especially to the attendees. Stampedes, explosions, strong winds, and debris hitting people are some examples. Get general liability insurance and don’t shoulder the burden when people, who sustained injuries or property damage due to an accident in your hot air balloon event, file a claim.
So how does general liability insurance for hot air balloon events work? This will cover or reimburse the medical expenses of injured third parties. General liability insurance will also refund the value of damaged properties.
General liability insurance for hot air balloon events has additional inclusions such as advertising injury coverage and products and completed operations coverage.
Products and completed operations will kick in if someone files a personal injury claim or property claim against a service or product received during your hot air balloon event. As for advertising injury coverage, this will cover attorney fees, administrative costs, and other legal expenses if your hot air balloon event is sued for slander, defamation, or copyright infringement.
Workers Compensation Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Events
You will need to hire some seasonal and part-time employees for your hot air balloon event. And even if it only lasts for a few days or weeks, workers accomplishing specific tasks for the hot air balloon event need to be covered with workers' compensation insurance.
Workers' compensation insurance kicks in when a seasonal or part-time employee of your hot air balloon event sustains injuries due to a slip and fall accident, explosion, impact, or any other accident. Particularly, it will cover the following on the seasonal or part-time employee’s behalf:
Medical expenses-Workers compensation insurance will cover ambulance fees, surgeries, therapies, and other medical expenses
Hospitalization-If the seasonal or part-time employee of your hot air balloon event needs to be admitted to the hospital after sustaining a work-related injury, then workers' compensation insurance will cover the bills
Medication-Workers compensation insurance provides the money to be used for buying the prescription medicines
Rehabilitation-Rehabilitation costs will be covered by workers' compensation insurance if the seasonal or part-time employee of your hot air balloon event suffers from a temporary or permanent impairment due to a work-related injury or disease
Lost income compensation-Workers compensation insurance covers lost income if the seasonal or part-time employee of your hot air balloon event can’t work due to a work-related injury or disease. Compensation for lost income is a weekly allowance income to two-thirds or 67% of the average wage
Death benefits-Workers compensation insurance provides death benefits if the seasonal or part-time employee dies due to an accident in your hot air balloon event. Particularly, the insurance will pay for funeral expenses and provide an allowance to dependents
We recommend looking for an insurance company that sells a pay as you go workers' compensation insurance. Applying for pay-as-you-go workers comp is faster than applying for the standard worker's compensation insurance. Also, rates are cheaper and more accurate.
Non-Owned/Hired Auto Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Events
You’ll hire vehicles to haul equipment and accomplish other related tasks for the hot air balloon event. Protect yourself against expenses if hired vehicles get into an accident by buying non-owned/hired auto insurance.
Non-owned/hired auto insurance covers the medical expenses or refunds the losses of third parties who got injured in an accident caused by a vehicle you hired for your hot air balloon event. It also pays for legal expenses.
Another thing, non-owned/hired auto coverage also pays for expenses if an employee uses his or her own vehicle and gets into an accident while doing an errand for your hot air balloon event.
Equipment Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Events
You’ll hire equipment for your hot air balloon event-lighting, speakers, seats, staging, and many more. And so, ensure that you don’t incur losses when something happens to rented equipment; buy equipment insurance for hot air balloon events.
Equipment insurance will refund the losses of the owner if the equipment you rented sustains damage or becomes lost due to fire, theft, vandalism, weather, and other covered perils. Note that coverage doesn’t apply if such rented equipment becomes lost or damaged while being hauled.
Liquor Liability Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Events
If you allow the selling of liquor within the premises of the venue of your hot air balloon event, then consider getting liquor liability insurance. Liquor liability insurance will cover expenses if a third party sustains injuries or property damage out of being drunk and sues you for overserving him or her with liquor.
Event Cancellation Insurance for Hot Air Balloon Events
Strong winds, delayed delivery of equipment, employee errors, and heavy rains are some of the reasons why your hot air balloon event can be canceled. And so, it’s smart to get event cancellation insurance to shield yourself against the worst. In a nutshell, what this does is cover all non-refundable expenditures if your hot air balloon event becomes canceled. Particularly, coverage applies to what you spend for food catering, equipment rental, and hired professionals.
Note that event cancellation insurance can be modified with endorsements so that it reimburses lost revenues and extra expenses for reducing resulting losses. Note that while event cancellation insurance doesn’t cover typhoons, national mourning, and outbreaks; its terms can be upgraded to provide coverage for these.
