[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4174 Introduced in House (IH)]







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 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a final 
regulation to mitigate center wing fuel tank flammability in transport 
                           category aircraft.

    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 ``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 transport 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 Island, 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 transport 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 objective 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 recognized 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 aircraft 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 category 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 
transport category aircraft with fuel tank inerting systems.
                                 <all>