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[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1458 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1458

To amend the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to establish time limitations 
on certain civil actions against aircraft manufacturers, and for other 
                               purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

           September 14 (legislative day, September 7), 1993.

   Mrs. Kassebaum (for herself, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Bond, Mr. Brown, Mr. 
  Burns, Mr. Coats, Mr. Danforth, Mr. Dole, Mr. Exon, Mr. Glenn, Mr. 
    Gorton, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Hatch, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. 
  Jeffords, Mr. Kerrey, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Lott, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Mack, Mr. 
McCain, Mr. Murkowski, Mr. Pressler, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Simpson, Mr. 
  Smith, Mr. Thurmond, and Mr. Warner) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To amend the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to establish time limitations 
on certain civil actions against aircraft manufacturers, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``General Aviation Revitalization Act 
of 1993''.

SEC. 2. TIME LIMITATION ON CIVIL ACTIONS AGAINST AIRCRAFT 
              MANUFACTURERS.

    Title XI of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (49 U.S.C. App. 1510-
1518) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

``SEC. 1119. TIME LIMITATION ON CIVIL ACTIONS AGAINST AIRCRAFT 
              MANUFACTURERS.

    ``(a) In General.--No civil action for damages for death or injury 
to persons or damage to property arising out of an accident involving a 
general aviation aircraft may be brought against the manufacturer of 
the aircraft or the manufacturer of any component, system, subassembly, 
or other part of the aircraft, if the accident occurred--
            ``(1) more than 15 years after--
                    ``(A) the date of delivery of the aircraft to its 
                first purchaser or lessee, if delivered directly from 
                the manufacturer; or
                    ``(B) the date of first delivery of the aircraft to 
                a person engaged in the business of selling or leasing 
                such aircraft; or
            ``(2) with respect to any component, system, subassembly, 
        or other part which replaced another product originally in, or 
        which was added to, the aircraft, and which is alleged to have 
        caused the claimant's damages, more than 15 years after the 
        date of the replacement or addition.
    ``(b) General Aviation Aircraft Defined.--For the purposes of this 
section, the term `general aviation aircraft' means any aircraft for 
which a type certificate or an airworthiness certificate has been 
issued by the Administrator, which, at the time such certificate was 
originally issued, had a maximum seating capacity of fewer than 20 
passengers, and which was not, at the time of the accident, engaged in 
scheduled passenger carrying operations as defined under regulations 
issued under this Act.
    ``(c) Relationship to Other Laws.--This section supersedes any 
Federal or State law to the extent that such law permits a civil action 
described in subsection (a) to be brought after the applicable deadline 
for such civil action established by subsection (a).''.

SEC. 3. CONFORMING AMENDMENT.

    The table of contents contained in the first section of the Federal 
Aviation Act of 1958 is amended by adding at the end of the matter 
relating to title XI of such Act the following:

``Sec. 1119. Time Limitation on Civil Actions Against Aircraft 
                            Manufacturers.
                              ``(a) In general.
                              ``(b) General aviation aircraft defined.
                              ``(c) Relationship to other laws.''.

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