In response to a flood of opinions about Icon’s proposed purchase agreement for buyers of its A5 light sport aircraft — which included an airplane life limit and liability limits — the company said last month it would amend the agreement, and this week the company released copies of the new documents. The new contract removes several of the more controversial stipulations and tweaks others. “We’ve listened carefully to the feedback [from customers],” Icon said in a letter to customers(PDF) on Monday. “The spirit of the agreement has two primary objectives: (1) vigorously promote safety through responsible flight operations by the operator, and (2) confront the product liability crisis that has crippled GA for decades. We believe it’s the right fight – one that can help all of GA. That said, we should have done a better job sharing our philosophy and soliciting your feedback in advance. We’ll own it and have tried to remedy it with the revised version.”
The new buyer’s agreement is about 20 pages — about half the length of the original — and is split into two parts, a purchase agreement (PDF) and an operating agreement (PDF). The company has reformatted and restructured the document to make it “more reader-friendly and less overwhelming.” The new agreement also includes an expanded privacy policy, to clarify how Icon will use information from the A5’s flight data recorder, “to give customers confidence that this data will be (1) treated confidentially and (2) available to them if requested.” The 30-year airframe life limit in the original contract is now gone. “Airworthiness will be governed by the recurring 10-year overhaul and thorough inspections,” says Icon.
