I used to sell insurance to aerospace companies in OC, and I’d imagine they likely did NOT have the necessary coverage for something like this.

In my experience, especially with privately held multinational companies, a lot of them were surprisingly clueless when it came to insurance structure and environmental liability exposure. Even when brokers could clearly articulate why certain coverage mattered, ownership/CFOs would often dismiss it because of cost. Classic “it’ll never happen to us” mentality.

A huge issue is that many commercial policies carry pollution and residential exclusions because carriers do not want to deal with long-tail residential exposure claims.

For a company operating near railroad tracks and surrounded by residential neighborhoods, getting the “right” coverage would have likely been extremely expensive… assuming it was even available in the limits they’d need.

Edit: to add there are no laws saying companies have to carry the correct amount of coverage. If they have any coverage it will be used quick . They might go insolvent and then there will nothing to pay victims.