I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4174 
To require the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a final regulation 
to mitigate center wing fuel tank flammability in transport category aircraft. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 28, 2005 
Mr. BISHOP of New York (for himself, Mr. ISRAEL, Mrs. MCCARTHY, and Mr. 
ACKERMAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To require the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a 
final regulation to mitigate center wing fuel tank flam-
mability in transport category aircraft. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transport Aircraft 
Fuel Tank Safety Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Federal Aviation Administration has 
achieved significant progress toward limiting trans-
port category aircraft deaths resulting from center 
wing fuel tank explosions, including the crash of 
Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 800 off the 
coast of East Moriches, Suffolk County in Long Is-
land, New York on July 17, 1996 (the single largest 
loss of life as a result of a preventable center wing 
fuel tank explosion in a transport category aircraft). 
(2) Over the course of the past 15 years, three 
separate fatal transport category aircraft accidents 
resulting in the loss of 346 lives were the result of 
preventable fuel tank explosions. 
(3) Center wing fuel tank explosions of trans-
port category aircraft remain a concern and have the 
potential to cause flight disasters. 
(4) The National Transportation Safety Board, 
pursuant to its recommendations A–96–174 and A– 
96–175, explicitly affirms that the elimination of 
center wing fuel tank explosions is a primary objec-
tive of aviation safety, and that when considering 
safety changes, the Federal Aviation Administration 
should give significant consideration to fuel tank 
inerting systems. 
(5) It has enacted aviation safety measures in 
response to the tragedy of TWA Flight 800 and rec-
ognized the hardship confronted by family members
of the passenger victims who were killed as a result 
of the crash. 
(6) There is a need to address and resolve the 
risk to airline passengers due to the vulnerability of 
aircraft center wing fuel tanks to explosion. 
SEC. 3. ISSUE FINAL RULE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 
Federal Aviation Administration shall issue a final rule 
requiring— 
(1) manufacturers of transport category air-
craft to install fuel tank inerting systems on existing 
transport category aircraft that have fuel tanks with 
high flammability exposure and new aircraft; 
(2) not later than 5 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, operators of transport cat-
egory aircraft retrofit existing transport category 
aircraft with fuel tank inerting systems. 
(b) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 
necessary to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation 
Administration to reimburse manufacturers and operators 
of transport category aircraft to install or retrofit trans-
port category aircraft with fuel tank inerting systems. 
Æ