Airplanes seem to be falling from the sky this week, I believe I've read of three small plane crashes in a few days.
Are pilots or owners of private small planes required to carry insurance in case of crashes, not covering their plane, but for collateral damages against killing someone on the ground or burning someones house down?

To the best of my knowledge, there is no Federal requirement to carry liability insurance. I can’t speak to other states, but I’ve been told that CA law requires that pilots have liability insurance. I am not sure how they police that, but...

When I was the only named pilot for the V-Tail, I had one million dollar liability, and one hundred thousand dollar hull (similar to collision / comprehensive on a car policy), with zero deductible on the hull. My total premium was around $1,700 annually. The premium went up considerably when I added another named pilot who did not have anywhere near the Bonanza experience that I have.

Aviation insurance premiums are set by underwriters who actually look at individual pilot qualifications. This practice makes a lot more sense to me, than the way automobile insurance premiums are set.

I would guess that most private pilots have considerable financial resources avialable to cover whatever losses are incurred. Life insurance proceeds and the estate of the deceased provide other avenues. I would imagine that these are quite recoverable as the negligence would certainly fall on the pilot and owner of the aircraft. A close friend of mine who is a personal injury attorney tells me that it is simply a matter of filing paperwork. Of course that is simplifying things with the various filings required.

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Airplanes seem to be falling from the sky this week, I believe I've read of three small plane crashes in a few days.

Just to keep things in perspective.
There are around 213,300 general aviation airplanes registered in the US and almost any incident makes the news.

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I would guess that most private pilots have considerable financial resources avialable to cover whatever losses are incurred. Life insurance proceeds and the estate of the deceased provide other avenues. I would imagine that these are quite recoverable as the negligence would certainly fall on the pilot and owner of the aircraft. A close friend of mine who is a personal injury attorney tells me that it is simply a matter of filing paperwork. Of course that is simplifying things with the various filings required.

Generalizations can be fraught. When I learned to fly and got my first airplane (before finishing college), my assets were pretty much that 1948 Cessna 140 (which was no showpiece) and old Toyota pickup (way, way pre-Tacoma) with over 200,000 miles and a shift lever that had a tendency to pop out if you didn’t shift gently. I guess if one ever needed a club it would have been great, but I always thought it was a pain as one had to fit it back in before shifting again. Try that in stop and go traffic on Bay Area freeways. ;-) Several of us bummed around together at Santa Paula airport before I moved up to the Bay Area. Three or four 120/140s, a Piper Cub, and an Aeronca Chief. If anyone else in the crew had significantly more assets, they hid them well. Pilots are a surprisingly diverse group. For every Daddy Warbucks who gets into aviation as another expensive toy to soak up some of the extra cash weighing him down there is probably some guy (or gal) who is eating ramen to be able to fly because they love it. If you get into the CFI group there’s probably a whole lot less of the former and more of the latter. Ditto for early in their career airline pilots. Some friends complained years ago that the money at the commuters was worse than flight instructing. Still, they needed those turbine hours to have a shot at the majors...

Sure, most folks flying a jet or high dollar turboprop (as the owner, who may or may not be the pilot) have serious coin, but there are probably exceptions there too.

The other side of the coin is that folks with significant assets generally (not always, but generally) have sufficient liability insurance to protect those assets should things go pear shaped. Back when I got started in aviation I would not have considered an umbrella policy even if I did have a clue what one was. Today I wouldn’t be without one.

I always had liability. No need to insure the plane unless it is financed and the bank wants insurance.

My company planes I owned all were insured for full coverage because all my contracts required it. The helicopter insurance was the killer though as it cost a fortune to insure them.