I

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1458

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 18, 1994

Referred jointly to the Committees on the Judiciary and Public Works and

Transportation

AN ACT

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 1994’’.
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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.—Except as provided in subsection

9 (b) of this section, no civil action for damages for death

10 or injury to persons or damage to property arising out

11 of an accident involving a general aviation aircraft may

12 be brought against the manufacturer of the aircraft or the

13 manufacturer of any component, system, subassembly, or

14 other part of the aircraft, if the accident occurred—

15 ‘‘(1) more than 18 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 18 years after the date of

2 the replacement or addition.

3 ‘‘(b) EXCEPTIONS.—Subsection (a) of this section

4 does not apply—

5 ‘‘(1) if the claimant pleads with specificity the

6 facts necessary to prove, and proves by clear and

7 convincing evidence that the manufacturer with re8 spect to certification or obligations with respect to

9 continuing airworthiness of an aircraft or aircraft

10 component knowingly misrepresented to the FAA, or

11 concealed or withheld from the FAA, required infor12 mation that is material and relevant to the perform13 ance or the maintenance or operation of such air14 craft or component that is causally related to the

15 harm which the claimant allegedly suffered;

16 ‘‘(2) if the person for whose injury or death the

17 claim is being made is a passenger for purposes of

18 receiving treatment for a medical or other emer19 gency; or

20 ‘‘(3) if the person for whose injury or death the

21 claim is being made was not aboard the aircraft at

22 the time of the accident.

23 ‘‘(c) GENERAL AVIATION AIRCRAFT DEFINED.—For

24 the purposes of this section, the term ‘general aviation air25 craft’ means any aircraft for which a type certificate or
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1 an airworthiness certificate has been issued by the Admin2 istrator, which, at the time such certificate was originally

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

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

5 engaged in scheduled passenger carrying operations as de6 fined under regulations issued under this Act.

7 ‘‘(d) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAWS.—This section

8 supersedes any Federal or State law to the extent that

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

10 to be brought after the applicable deadline for such civil

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

12 SEC. 3. CONFORMING AMENDMENT.

13 The table of contents contained in the first section

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

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

16 the following:

‘‘Sec. 1119. Time Limitation on Civil Actions Against Aircraft Manufacturers.

‘‘(a) In general.

‘‘(b) Exceptions.

‘‘(c) General aviation aircraft defined.

‘‘(d) Relationship to other laws.’’.

Passed the Senate March 16 (legislative day, February 22), 1994.

Attest: WALTER J. STEWART,

Secretary.