Aviation Insurance Underwriter Develops Low-level Hazard Warning Tool | Aviation International News

Aviation Insurer Develops Low-level Hazard Warning Tool

App’s heat map highlights risks in areas where helicopter might fly

Class A Insurance app shows risk areas — The Class A Insurance app lets helicopter pilots view areas where notams and other information highlight hazards for a planned flight.

By Matt Thurber • Editor-in-Chief

June 3, 2026

After the fatal crash of an MD 369FF into a slackline strung across a canyon at 600 feet agl on January 2, killing the four occupants, questions were raised about why the helicopter’s pilot might not have been aware of a notam highlighting the slackline’s location. Team members at underwriter Class A Insurance couldn’t help thinking about the notam problem, especially because one of them was a personal friend of the deceased helicopter pilot.

“He was a good pilot,” said Robin Graham, Class A’s head of underwriting, “and that should have never happened.” Graham called chief technology officer Shayne O’Sullivan, and they wondered whether Class A could build a tool to help prevent accidents by making pilots more easily aware of critical notams.

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