Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-0746; Project Identifier AD-2025-00674-T; Amendment 39-23029; AD 2025-09-08]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing Company Model 747 airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report that a right-hand outboard elevator was received and installed without balance weights. This AD requires doing a maintenance records check to determine if certain outboard elevators are installed or an inspection to determine if outboard elevators have balance weights, and applicable on-condition actions. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This AD is effective May 5, 2025. The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of May 5, 2025. The FAA must receive comments on this AD by June 20, 2025. </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> by searching for and locating Docket No. FAA-2025-0746; 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 final rule, any comments received, and other information. The street address for Docket Operations is listed above. <E T="03">Material Incorporated by Reference:</E> • For Boeing material identified in this AD, contact Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Attention: Contractual & Data Services (C&DS), 2600 Westminster Blvd., MC 110-SK57, Seal Beach, CA 90740-5600; telephone 562-797-1717; website <E T="03">myboeingfleet.com.</E> • You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 206-231-3195. It is also available at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-0746. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Taylor Stanley, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 407-852-7677; email: <E T="03">taylor.stanley@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 data, views, or arguments about this final rule. Send your comments using a method listed under the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Include Docket No. FAA-2025-0746 and Project Identifier AD-2025-00674-T at the beginning of your comments. The most helpful comments reference a specific portion of the final rule, 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 final rule 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 final rule. <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 AD 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 AD, 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 AD. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Taylor Stanley, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 407-852-7677; email: <E T="03">taylor.stanley@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 has received a report that a Model 747-8F series airplane operated with a right-hand outboard elevator that was received and installed without balance weights. The operator ordered left- and right-side outboard elevators, part number (P/N) 183U3300-13 and P/N 183U3300-14 respectively, and received outboard elevators, P/N 654U6625-2411 and P/N 654U6625-2412, with associated paperwork that identified the parts were interchangeable with P/N 183U3300-13 and P/N 183U3300-14 and included balance weights. However, P/N 654U6625-2411 and P/N 654U6625-2412 do not contain balance weights. Therefore, the parts are not directly interchangeable and must be balanced prior to installation and flight. A total of 10 spare assemblies, P/N 654U6625-2411 and P/N 654U6625-2412 (5 each), have been delivered to operators since 2022. Outboard elevators without balance weights, if not addressed, could result in abnormal vibration, buffeting, flutter, or oscillation that could result in loss of continued safe flight and landing. Further, outboard elevators without balance weights could result in personal injury to maintenance personnel during installation or removal of the outboard elevators. <HD SOURCE="HD1">FAA's Determination</HD> The FAA is issuing this AD because the agency has determined the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed Boeing Alert Safety Advisory 747-BSA-55-001, dated April 24, 2025. The material specifies procedures for a maintenance records check to determine if outboard elevators, P/N 654U6625-2411 and P/N 654U6625-2412, are installed, a general visual inspection of the outboard elevators to determine if balance weights are installed, and applicable on-conditions actions. On-condition actions include a maintenance records check to determine if the balance procedure of the outboard elevator was done, a general visual inspection of the outboard elevator for the installation of the balance weights, and corrective action instructions. This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. <HD SOURCE="HD1">AD Requirements</HD> This AD requires accomplishing the actions identified as “RC” (required for compliance) in the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Alert Safety Advisory 747-BSA-55-001, dated April 24, 2025, already described, except for any differences identified as exceptions in the regulatory text of this AD. See “Differences Between this AD and the Referenced Material” for a discussion of the general differences included in this AD. For information on the procedures and compliance times, see Boeing Alert Safety Advisory 747-BSA-55-001, dated April 24, 2025, at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-0746. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Differences Between This AD and the Referenced Material</HD> The effectivity of Boeing Alert Safety Advisory 747-BSA-55-001, dated April 24, 2025, is limited to Model 747-400, -400D, -400F, -8, and -8F series airplanes. However, the applicability of this AD includes all The Boeing Company Model 747-100, -100B, -100B SUD, -200B, -200C, -200F, -300, -400, -400D, -400F, -8, -8F, 747SR, and 747SP series airplanes. Because the affected elevators are rotable parts, the FAA has determined that these parts could later be installed on airplanes that were initially delivered with acceptable parts, thereby subjecting those airplanes to the unsafe condition. The FAA has confirmed with Boeing that the Accomplishment Instructions in Boeing Alert Safety Advisory 747-BSA-55-001, dated April 24, 2025, can be used for the expanded group of airplanes to address the unsafe condition. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Justification for Immediate Adoption and Determination of the Effective Date</HD> Section 553(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5 U.S.C. 551 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) authorizes agencies to dispense with notice and comment procedures for rules when the agency, for “good cause,” finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” Under this section, an agency, upon finding good cause, may issue a final rule without providing notice and seeking comment prior to issuance. Further, section 553(d) of the APA authori ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 22k characters. 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