Drone Insurance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Liability & Drone Hull Insurance

If you live in the United States, drone insurance is not currently required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for either recreational or commercial drone use.

Interestingly enough — if you live in Minnesota, there are specific insurance requirements based on aircraft. More information about state-by-state drone laws in our drone law directory.

Of course, even if insurance isn’t required by law, there are some other considerations.

In some instances, you might need a minimum level of insurance coverage to take on a project, whether it’s needing to secure a city film permit, or working with a larger company that requires insurance for each of its vendors.

And as we mentioned in our introduction, if you’re flying a drone for any kind of non-recreational purpose, you might want to think about reducing your liability exposure.

Buying drone insurance doesn’t cost much and offers all kinds of peace-of-mind!

The two most common types of drone insurance are:

I. Drone Liability Insurance

You can think about liability insurance like you would with typical car insurance — the policy protects you from third-party claims of property damage or injury, like accidentally crashing your drone into a building, someone else’s car, or an even more unfortunate incident where you’re getting sued to cover someone else’s medical costs.

Of course, there are varying degrees of liability insurance, so make sure to consult your specific policy’s fine print to see if things like negligence or privacy infringement claims would be covered.

You can buy liability insurance “on-demand” — meaning you’re only paying for the time you’re up in the air. We recommend checking out SkyWatch, where policies start at just $10 per hour — SkyWatch is the leading on-demand drone insurance provider in the U.S. and is super easy to use. We’re big fans!

With a liability drone insurance policy, limits typically start at $500,000 and usually can be negotiated to as high as is required by the business and its operations or clients — limits as high as $10,000,000 per occurrence are not unheard of in UAS insurance.

II. Hull Insurance

Generally, the next coverage to consider after liability is “hull” coverage.

This is where you’re insuring the actual drone.

If you’re flying a DJI camera drone, you might want to consider getting this kind of coverage directly through them. At the moment, they offer three different plans:

• DJI Care is only available for older Phantom or Inspire models and covers damage to your DJI aircraft, gimbal or camera during either normal use or accidental damage. You will receive a coverage amount equal to the market price of your drone for repair service within the validity period — there is no limit to the number of times your drone can be repaired, provided the total coverage amount is not exceeded. And if you are in the region in which you purchased your DJI Care, shipping costs will be covered by DJI.

• DJI Care Refresh is the most common plan being sold right now and is structured similar to DJI Care, though the plan allows you to skip the damage assessment and quotation process. A DJI service center will ship you a replacement as soon as they receive your damaged drone.

• DJI Care Refresh+ offers up to two replacement units within one year and covers certain kinds of accidents, such as water damage and collisions.

If you’re needing hull coverage for a more professional drone system, check with the manufacturer to see if they have their own coverage, or you can also consult with any of the drone insurance brokers mentioned later in this guide.

III. Other Types of Drone Insurance

While liability and hull insurance are the two most common types of sUAS insurance, you might also want to consider payload insurance — are you carrying an expensive thermal, multispectral or cinematography camera and gimbal system?

And there’s also your ground equipment, like dedicated ground stations, laptops, tablets, UAV cases, remote controllers, etc. That can all be insured. And there may be other considerations like non-owned coverage or personal injury coverage.

Please consult the previous chapter to better understand the different types of insurance available.

Liability insurance through an on-demand provider like SkyWatch can run as little as $10 / hour for $1 million in coverage.  You can also pay by the month or year.

And if you’re working with a broker to put together a more comprehensive or custom policy, drone liability insurance can begin to cost up to $600-$800 per year.

Of course, you’ll need a unique quote from an insurance company to know exactly how much you will be covered and what it will cost. Each company structures their policies a little differently. Some include hull insurance, others do not. Do your due diligence and chat with a number of companies before moving forward.

For hull coverage, where you’re insuring the drone itself, a DJI Care Refresh plan for a DJI Mavic 3 starts at $230 per year.

Most U.S. drone pilots use an on-demand insurance company like SkyWatch to purchase liability insurance for as little as $10/hr.

You simply download their app, set up your account, and plug in your flight location and mission parameters to see what the rate would be, and then you can buy the insurance directly through the app without needing to speak to a broker.

As mentioned earlier in this guide, if you’re flying a DJI drone, consider checking out the DJI Care or DJI Care Refresh (or Refresh+) options for hull coverage.

Of course, there are a handful of drone insurance companies that can put together more custom quotes. As an example, we needed a custom quote for our hands-on drone flight training classes and worked with one of the below companies to develop the policy.

Here’s some information you’ll want to have ready if you reach out to a drone insurance broker:

1. Information about you, including your address and contact info.
2. The type of coverage you need (liability vs. hull)
3. The cost of each part of your rig, including equipment
4. Specific information about the UAV(s) you have
5. Where you’re planning to operate
6. How many hours you’ve flown
7. How much training you’ve received
8. If you have any previous history of accidents or loss
9. Part 107 certificate number or any other country-equivalent certification paperwork

Check out this form from Aviation Insurance to see what information a company might ask you for in the consultation stage.

List of Drone Insurance Companies

In alphabetical order, here’s a list of drone insurance companies that can help you find the best sUAS insurance policy for you and your company. This list is particular to the United States, and some of the companies listed are very specific to the drone industry, while others offer more diverse business products to their clients.

List of On-Demand Insurance Providers

Not ready to work with an insurance broker to negotiate an annual policy? Check out these companies that offer on-demand insurance where you pay by the hour, day or month. A lower-cost alternative for folks just starting out and not necessarily knowing how often they’ll be flying, and if an annual policy makes sense.

• AutoPylot
• DroneInsurance.com
• SkyWatch (as low as $10 / hour)

List of Drone Insurance Brokers

If you’d rather put together a plan with a drone insurance specialist, where you’re working together to understand what needs to be covered and negotiating an annual premium, check out any of the below companies:

• Aerial Pak (Hill & Usher)
• Avalon Risk Management
• Aviation Insurance Resources
• AVION Insurance
• Bullock Agency, Inc.
• BWI Aviation Insurance
• Driessen Assuadeuren (Drone-Insurance.com)
• Full Frame Insurance
• Harpenau Insurance Agency
• Kinney Pike Insurance
• MFE Insurance (InsureMyDrone)
• SkySmith
• Sutton James Incorporated
• Transport Risk Management
• Unmanned Risk Management

Can you lose your insurance?

Yep, here are a few reasons why you might get dropped from your provider. Every provider has its own exclusions, and it’s important to understand what they are.

Here are a few we’ve come across:

• Not logging your flights and being able to prove what happened during an accident with flight log data.
• Not registering your serial number and putting proper identification numbers on your drone.
• Not logging all battery cycles and maintenance changes.
• Not practicing ethical flight.

Hopefully, this guide has helped you to better understand drone insurance.

If you’re flying for any kind of non-recreational purpose, getting insured is highly recommended to protect you and your business or organization.