II

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.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘General Aviation Revi5 talization Act of 1993’’.
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1 SEC. 2. TIME LIMITATION ON CIVIL ACTIONS AGAINST AIR2 CRAFT MANUFACTURERS.

3 Title XI of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (49

4 U.S.C. App. 1510–1518) is amended by adding at the end

5 the following new section:

6 ‘‘SEC. 1119. TIME LIMITATION ON CIVIL ACTIONS AGAINST

7 AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS.

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—No civil action for damages for

9 death or injury to persons or damage to property arising

10 out of an accident involving a general aviation aircraft

11 may be brought against the manufacturer of the aircraft

12 or the manufacturer of any component, system, subassem13 bly, or other part of the aircraft, if the accident oc14 curred—

15 ‘‘(1) more than 15 years after—

16 ‘‘(A) the date of delivery of the aircraft to

17 its first purchaser or lessee, if delivered directly

18 from the manufacturer; or

19 ‘‘(B) the date of first delivery of the air20 craft to a person engaged in the business of

21 selling or leasing such aircraft; or

22 ‘‘(2) with respect to any component, system,

23 subassembly, or other part which replaced another

24 product originally in, or which was added to, the air25 craft, and which is alleged to have caused the claim-
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1 ant’s damages, more than 15 years after the date of

2 the replacement or addition.

3 ‘‘(b) GENERAL AVIATION AIRCRAFT DEFINED.—For

4 the purposes of this section, the term ‘general aviation air5 craft’ means any aircraft for which a type certificate or

6 an airworthiness certificate has been issued by the Admin7 istrator, which, at the time such certificate was originally

8 issued, had a maximum seating capacity of fewer than 20

9 passengers, and which was not, at the time of the accident,

10 engaged in scheduled passenger carrying operations as de11 fined under regulations issued under this Act.

12 ‘‘(c) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAWS.—This section

13 supersedes any Federal or State law to the extent that

14 such law permits a civil action described in subsection (a)

15 to be brought after the applicable deadline for such civil

16 action established by subsection (a).’’.

17 SEC. 3. CONFORMING AMENDMENT.

18 The table of contents contained in the first section

19 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 is amended by adding

20 at the end of the matter relating to title XI of such Act

21 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.’’.

Æ