Motivated by recent shock tube studies on the thermal unimolecular decomposition of fluoroethanes, in which unusual trends have been reported for collisional energy-transfer parameters, the rate constants for the thermal decomposition of fluoroethane were investigated using a shock tube/laser absorption spectroscopy technique. The rate constants were measured behind reflected shock waves by monitoring the formation of HF by IR absorption at the R(1) transition in the fundamental vibrational band near 2476 nm using a distributed-feedback diode laser. The peak absorption cross sections of this absorption line have also been determined and parametrized using the Rautian-Sobel'man line shape function. The rate constant measurements covered a wide temperature range of 1018-1710 K at pressures from 100 to 290 kPa, and the derived rate constants were successfully reproduced by the master equation calculation with an average downward energy transfer, , of 400 cm(-1).