Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH (AHD) Helicopters

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2024-0462; Project Identifier MCAI-2022-00523-R]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH (AHD) Helicopters</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2021-11-17 and AD 2021-11-22, which apply to all Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH (AHD) Model EC135P1, EC135P2, EC135P2+, EC135P3, EC135T1, EC135T2, EC135T2+, and EC135T3 helicopters. AD 2021-11-17 requires a one-time visual inspection of certain part-numbered main rotor actuators (MRAs). AD 2021-11-22 requires revising the life limits of certain parts and removing each part that has reached its life limit. Since the FAA issued those ADs, it was determined that repetitive inspections of the MRAs are necessary, new and more restrictive tasks and limitations have been issued, and that it is necessary to expand the applicability. This proposed AD would continue to require the actions required by AD 2021-11-17 and AD 2021-11-22, except this proposed AD would require changing the one-time MRA inspection to a repetitive inspection and incorporating other new and more restrictive tasks and limitations by revising the airworthiness limitations section (ALS) of the existing helicopter maintenance manual or instructions for continued airworthiness and the existing approved maintenance or inspection program, as applicable. This proposed AD would also expand the applicability by adding Model EC635T2+ helicopters. These actions are specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD, which is proposed for incorporation by reference. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The FAA must receive comments on this proposed AD by April 25, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may send comments, using the procedures found in 14 CFR 11.43 and 11.45, by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> . Follow the instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> (202) 493-2251. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery:</E> Deliver to Mail address above between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. <E T="03">AD Docket:</E> You may examine the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2024-0462; or in person at Docket Operations between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The AD docket contains this NPRM, any comments received, and other information. The street address for Docket Operations is listed above. <E T="03">Material Incorporated by Reference:</E> • For EASA material identified in this NPRM, contact Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 3, 50668 Cologne, Germany; telephone +49 221 8999 000; email <E T="03">ADs@easa.europa.eu;</E> website <E T="03">easa.europa.eu.</E> You may find the EASA material on the EASA website <E T="03">ad.easa.europa.eu.</E> • You may view this material at the FAA, Office of the Regional Counsel, Southwest Region, 10101 Hillwood Parkway, Room 6N-321, Fort Worth, TX 76177. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110. The EASA material is also available at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2024-0462. <E T="03">Other Related Service Information:</E> For Airbus service information identified in this NPRM, contact Airbus Helicopters, 2701 North Forum Drive, Grand Prairie, TX 75052; telephone (972) 641-0000 or (800) 232-0323; fax (972) 641-3775; or website <E T="03">airbus.com/en/products-services/helicopters/hcare-services/airbusworld.</E> You may also view this service information at the FAA contact information under <E T="03">Material Incorporated by Reference</E> above. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Joe Salameh, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; telephone (206) 231-3536; email <E T="03">joe.salameh@faa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments Invited</HD> The FAA invites you to send any written relevant data, views, or arguments about this proposal. Send your comments to an address listed under <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> . Include “Docket No. FAA-2024-0462; Project Identifier MCAI-2022-00523-R” at the beginning of your comments. The most helpful comments reference a specific portion of the proposal, explain the reason for any recommended change, and include supporting data. The FAA will consider all comments received by the closing date and may amend this proposal because of those comments. Except for Confidential Business Information (CBI) as described in the following paragraph, and other information as described in 14 CFR 11.35, the FAA will post all comments received, without change, to <E T="03">regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information you provide. The agency will also post a report summarizing each substantive verbal contact received about this NPRM. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Confidential Business Information</HD> CBI is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public disclosure. If your comments responsive to this NPRM contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or responsive to this NPRM, it is important that you clearly designate the submitted comments as CBI. Please mark each page of your submission containing CBI as “PROPIN.” The FAA will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the FOIA, and they will not be placed in the public docket of this NPRM. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Joe Salameh, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; telephone (206) 231-3536; email <E T="03">joe.salameh@faa.gov.</E> Any commentary that the FAA receives that is not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket for this rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The FAA issued AD 2021-11-17, Amendment 39-21579 (86 FR 31087, June 11, 2021) (AD 2021-11-17), for all Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH (AHD) Model EC135P1, EC135P2, EC135P2+, EC135P3, EC135T1, EC135T2, EC135T2+, and EC135T3 helicopters. AD 2021-11-17 requires a one-time visual inspection of the MRA. The FAA issued AD 2021-11-17 to prevent failure of the MRA and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter. The FAA issued AD 2021-11-22, Amendment 39-21584 (86 FR 31101, June 11, 2021) (AD 2021-11-22), for Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH Model EC135P1, EC135P2, EC135P2+, EC135P3, EC135T1, EC135T2, EC135T2+, and EC135T3 helicopters. AD 2021-11-22 requires revising the life limit of certain parts and removing from service each part that has reached its life limit. The FAA issued AD 2021-11-22 to prevent certain parts from remaining in service beyond their fatigue life, resulting in failure of the part and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Actions Since AD 2021-11-17 and AD 2021-11-22 Were Issued</HD> Since the FAA issued AD 2021-11-17 and AD 2021-11-22, EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union, has issued EASA AD 2022-0067, dated April 13, 2022 (EASA AD 2022-0067), to correct an unsafe condition on Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH Model EC135 P1, EC135 P2, EC135 P2+, EC135 P3, EC135 T1, EC135 T2, EC135 T2+, EC135 T3, EC635 P2+, EC635 P3, EC635 T1, EC635 T2+, and EC635 T3 helicopters. You may examine EASA AD 2022-0067 in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2024-0462. Since the FAA issued AD 2021-11-17 and AD 2021-11-22, the FAA has also determined that it is necessary to expand the applicability by adding Model EC635T2+ helicopters. While the FAA type certificate data sheet for this model helicopter notes that import of this model helicopter is limited to serial number 0858 and that no other serial numbers are eligible for conversion and import, notes in a type certificate data sheet can change. Additionally, because the unsafe condition is likely to exist or develop on Model EC635T2+ helicopters, the FAA must issue an AD that applies to this model helicopter. This proposed AD was prompted by new and more restrictive tasks and airworthiness limitations and the determination to expand the applicability. The FAA is proposing this AD to prevent failure of certain parts, which, if not addressed, could result in subsequent loss of control of the helicopter. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Related Service Information Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> EASA AD 2022-0067 requires replacing components before exceeding their life limits and accomplishing maintenance tasks within thresholds and intervals specified in the applicable ALS as defined in EASA AD 2022-0067. Depending on the results of the maintenance tasks, EASA AD 2022-0067 requires accomplishing corrective action(s) or contacting AHD [Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH AHD] for approved instructions and accomplishing those instructions. EASA AD 2022-0067 also requires revising the Aircraft Maintenance Programme (AMP) by incorporating the limitations, tasks, and associa ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 24k characters. 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