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Civil Aviation Act 2023

Functions, powers, and duties of participants in civil aviation system - General offences and liability provisions

45: Responsibility for damage

You could also call this:

"Aircraft owners are responsible for damage their plane causes, even if it's not their fault."

Illustration for Civil Aviation Act 2023

If you own an aircraft, you are responsible for any damage it causes to property on land or water. This is true even if the damage happens when the aircraft is taking off, landing, or flying. You can be held responsible for the damage, and people can take you to court to get money for the damage, without having to prove that you were careless or did anything wrong on purpose.

If someone suffers damage or loss because of an aircraft, they can get money from the owner of the aircraft, as if the owner was at fault. However, if the person who suffered the damage or loss was partly to blame, the owner is not entirely responsible.

You can take someone to court to get money for damage or loss caused by an aircraft. If the damage or loss was partly your fault, the rules of the Contributory Negligence Act 1947 apply, which means the money you get might be reduced.

If an aircraft owner hires out their aircraft to someone else for more than 28 days, and none of the aircraft's crew work for the owner, the person who hired the aircraft is responsible for any damage it causes.

In this case, "fault" means being careless, breaking a law, or doing something that makes you liable for the damage. This includes things that would normally be a defence against someone claiming money for damage, apart from the rules in the Contributory Negligence Act 1947.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS50155.

Topics:
Transport and travel > Air travel
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"Aircraft can fly over your property and make noise if they follow the rules"

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46: Circumstances in which owner entitled to be indemnified for responsibility for damage, or

"When you can get help paying for damage if someone says your aircraft caused it"

Part 2Functions, powers, and duties of participants in civil aviation system
General offences and liability provisions

45Responsibility for damage

  1. This section applies if material damage or loss is caused to property on land or water by—

  2. an aircraft in flight, taking off, landing, or alighting; or
    1. any person or article in, or falling from, an aircraft referred to in paragraph (a).

      1. Damages are recoverable from the owner of the aircraft for the damage or loss, without proof of negligence or intention or other cause of action, as if the damage or loss were caused by the person’s fault.

      2. Subsection (2) does not apply where the damage or loss was caused by or contributed to by the fault of the person who suffered the damage or loss.

      3. Civil proceedings may be commenced in a court for recovery of damages under subsection (2).

      4. If damage or loss is contributed to by the fault of the person who suffered the damage or loss, the provisions of the Contributory Negligence Act 1947 as to apportionment apply.

      5. If the owner of an aircraft has hired the aircraft out to any other person for a period greater than 28 days and no pilot, commander, navigator, or operative member of the crew of the aircraft is in the employment of the owner, this section and sections 46 and 47 apply as though every reference to the owner were a reference to the person who hired the aircraft.

      6. For the purposes of this section, fault means negligence, breach of statutory duty, or other act or omission that gives rise to a liability in tort or would, apart from the Contributory Negligence Act 1947, give rise to the defence of contributory negligence.

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