The threshold for scaling up the low-altitude economy is written half in the sky and half in contracts. Getting drones to fly is one thing; being able to get paid after a crash is another.
Over the past few years, the rule chain for low-altitude insurance has been broken. The Interim Regulations on the Flight Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles addressed "whether to buy insurance," and the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Low-Altitude Insurance issued by three ministries mapped out the roadmap for "how to build the system." However, there has long been a lack of unified standards from the occurrence of an insured event to the receipt of claims. The Shaanxi Guideline for Insurance Claims Settlement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Interim), guided by the Financial Regulatory Bureau and issued by the Provincial Insurance Industry Association, is China's first insurance claims settlement service specification for unmanned aerial vehicles, filling exactly this gap: unifying the evidence recognition rules, allocation of the burden of proof, and claims settlement standards for typical dispute scenarios.
The applicable boundaries are clearly defined. The Guideline covers aircraft "without an on-board pilot and with a self-contained power system," applying to four types of insurance: hull all-risk insurance, third-party liability insurance, pilot injury compensation insurance, and R&D expense loss insurance for scientific and technological projects. The last one is easily overlooked, but it means the protection perspective extends forward from the operation stage to the R&D and trial production stage—exactly the part that most needs a safety net in low-altitude equipment manufacturing clusters.
The most memorable phrase is "immediately seal flight records and ground station logs." UAV accidents are inherently "prone to evidence loss," such as falling into a reservoir, burning to a skeleton, or losing contact with no landing point. Traditional claims settlement relies on whether invoices and documents are complete, while the Guideline prioritizes objective data: reporting the incident immediately after it occurs and simultaneously notifying the operating unit, protecting the primary scene, cooperating in image collection, and sealing key electronic data. This sequence of actions seems like a process, but it is actually a prerequisite for settlement. Data retention is no longer a "recommendation" but a key variable in whether a claim can be settled.
Six types of disputes are listed separately, which is the sharpest part of the text. Loss of wreckage, damage to nameplates, loss of contact during flight, outsourced pilots, missing logs, and no invoices for payloads—the commonality of these six types is not "whether an incident occurred," but "the inability to provide evidence." The substantive significance of listing them separately is: "objective inability to obtain evidence" is no longer directly equivalent to a reason for claim rejection, but becomes a scenario that needs to be recognized and can be handled. The separate listing of "outsourced pilots" is particularly crucial, indicating that the review of the liability chain will penetrate to the actual operator. Companies that hire temporary pilots, do not sign contracts, and keep no training records will find the liability falling back on the party organizing the flight when an incident occurs.
Service time limits have been written as hard indicators. Surveyors must arrive within 24 hours of dispatch (no more than 48 hours in remote areas); major and complex cases are guided by experts from provincial branches; approval is tiered by amount, with claims under CNY 10,000 going through the "fast claims channel"; payment is generally made within 10 working days after reaching an agreement. The general principle is summarized in sixteen words: timely response, on-site verification, conclusive evidence, and full settlement of payable claims.
At the same time, we must clearly realize that this is a provincial industry specification, not a law, and does not directly constrain how much is paid, and the specific recognition rules for the six categories have not yet been disclosed item by item; online rumors such as "lost in flight for 30 days is treated as a total loss" come from self-media interpretations and are not reliable. The true value lies in converging the power of interpretation and unifying the standards—only when subsequent rules are written into the claims operation manuals and claims verification system rules of insurance companies will they truly be implemented.
To scale up the low-altitude economy, risks must first be made priceable and predictable. Mandatory insurance at the front end (Chongqing has issued the country's first UAV "compulsory traffic insurance") and claims settlement specifications at the back end—once these two lines are connected, the industry will have a safety foundation. Whoever controls the data controls the facts.