Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2024-2661; Project Identifier MCAI-2024-00269-T; Amendment 39-23041; AD 2025-10-07]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FAA is superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2015-02-14, which applied to all Airbus SAS Model A318 series airplanes; A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, and -133 airplanes; A320-211, -212, -214, -231, -232, and -233 airplanes; and A321-111, -112, -131, -211, -212, -213, -231, and -232 airplanes. AD 2015-02-14 required repetitive inspections for cracking, damage, correct installation, and correct adjustment of the main landing gear (MLG) door hinge and actuator fittings on the keel beam, corrective actions if necessary, and revision of the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable. Since the FAA issued AD 2015-02-14, a new design of the MLG door keel beam hinge and actuator fitting was developed. This AD continues to require the actions specified in AD 2015-02-14, adds an optional terminating action, and revises the applicability, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD, which is incorporated by reference. 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 June 26, 2025. The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of June 26, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> <E T="03">AD Docket:</E> You may examine the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. 2024-2661; 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, the mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI), any comments received, and other information. The address for Docket Operations is 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">Material Incorporated by Reference:</E> • For EASA material identified in this AD, contact EASA, Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 3, 50668 Cologne, Germany; telephone +49 221 8999 000; email <E T="03">ADs@easa.europa.eu.</E> You may find this material on the EASA website at <E T="03">ad.easa.europa.eu.</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-2024-2661. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Tim Dowling, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 206-231-3667; email: <E T="03">timothy.p.dowling@faa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend 14 CFR part 39 to supersede AD 2015-02-14, Amendment 39-18081 (80 FR 11096, March 2, 2015) (AD 2015-02-14). AD 2015-02-14 applied to all Airbus SAS Model A318 series airplanes; Model A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, and -133 airplanes; Model A320-211, -212, -214, -231, -232, and -233 airplanes; and Model A321-111, -112, -131, -211, -212, -213, -231, and -232 airplanes. AD 2015-02-14 required repetitive inspections for cracking, damage, correct installation, and correct adjustment of the MLG door hinge and actuator fittings on the keel beam; corrective actions if necessary; and revision of the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable. The FAA issued AD 2015-02-14 to detect and correct cracking on the MLG door hinge fitting and actuator fitting on the keel beam, which could lead to in-flight detachment of an MLG door, possibly resulting in injury to persons on the ground and/or damage to the airplane. The NPRM was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on December 17, 2024 (89 FR 102016). The NPRM was prompted by AD 2024-0097R2, dated July 12, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0097R2) (also referred to as the MCAI), which superseded EASA AD 2012-0118, dated July 4, 2012 (which corresponds to FAA AD 2015-02-14), issued by EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union. The MCAI states that after EASA AD 2012-0118 was issued, a new design of the MLG door keel beam hinge and actuator fitting was certified for current engine option (CEO) airplanes (Model A318-111, A318-112, A318-121, A318-122; A319-111, A319-112, A319-113, A319-114, A319-115, A319-131, A319-132, A319-133; A320-211, A320-212, A320-214, A320-215, A320-216, A320-231, A320-232, A320-233; and A321-111, A321-112, A321-131, A321-211, A321-212, A321-213, A321-231, and A321-232 airplanes) and new engine option (NEO) airplanes (Model A319-151N, A319-153N, A319-171N; A320-251N, A320-252N, A320-253N, A320-271N, A320-272N, A320-273N; A321-251N, A321-251NX, A321-252N, A321-252NX, A321-253N, A321-253NX, A321-271N, A321-271NX, A321-272N, and A321-272NX airplanes). The MCAI states that the applicability is expanded to include the NEO airplanes which are subject to the same unsafe condition. Model A320-215 airplanes are not certificated by the FAA and are not included on the U.S. type certificate data sheet; this AD therefore does not include those airplanes in the applicability. In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to continue to require the actions specified in AD 2015-02-14, add an optional terminating action, and revise the applicability, as specified in EASA AD 2024-0097R2. The FAA is issuing this AD to detect and correct cracking on the MLG door hinge fitting and actuator fitting on the keel beam, which could lead to in-flight detachment of a MLG door, possibly resulting in injury to persons on the ground and/or damage to the airplane. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2024-2661. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Discussion of Final Airworthiness Directive</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments</HD> The FAA received comments from the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) and United Airlines, who supported the NPRM without change. The FAA received additional comments from American Airlines (AA), Delta Air Lines (Delta), and Spirit Airlines. The following presents the comments received on the NPRM and the FAA's response to each comment. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Request To Correct a Typographical Error</HD> AA and Delta requested the FAA revise paragraph (k)(1)(ii) of the proposed AD to read “AMOCs approved previously for FAA AD 2015-02-14 are approved as AMOCs for the corresponding provisions of EASA AD 2024-0097R2 that are required by paragraph (g) of this AD.” (Paragraph (k)(1)(ii) of the proposed AD inadvertently referenced EASA AD 2012-0118, instead of EASA AD 2024-0097R2.) The FAA agrees and has revised paragraph (k)(1)(ii) of this AD accordingly. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Request To Clarify Superseding Relationship Between Airworthiness Limitations Tasks and Airbus Service Bulletins</HD> Spirit Airlines requested that when the FAA issues an AD to incorporate Airworthiness Limitations Section (ALS) Part 2, Revision 11 (which is scheduled for release November 2024), it include a caveat or clarification detailing the superseding relationship between Airworthiness Limitations (ALI) tasks 533154-10-1 and 533154-03-2, and Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1195, Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1325, Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1196, and Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1326. Spirit Airlines stated that it will not be able to incorporate ALI tasks 533154-10-1 and 533154-03-2 and Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1195, Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1325, Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1196, and Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1326 simultaneously, and a clear explanation will help avoid any confusion or conflicts when implementing the updated AD. The FAA does not agree with the request. Airbus will update the ALS as needed to address the superseding relationship between ALI tasks 533154-10-1 and 533154-03-2, and Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1195, Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1325, Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1196, and Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1326. The FAA has not changed this AD in this regard. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Request for a Grace Period</HD> Delta requested the FAA allow a 3-month grace period to comply with the initial inspection requirements in paragraphs (1) and (2) of EASA AD 2024-0097R2 for NEO airplanes. Delta requested this grace period to continue to use ALI task 533154-03-2 in lieu of Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1325, as referenced in paragraph (1) of EASA AD 2024-0097R2; and to continue to use ALI task 533154-04-2 or ALI task 533154-10-1 in lieu of Airbus Service Bulletin A320-53-1326 referenced in paragraph (2) of EASA AD 2024-0097R2. Delta noted that ALI tasks are mandatory inspections; therefore, until the final rule is issued, U.S. operators would have no authority to use those service bulletins in lieu of those ALI inspections. Delta stated that the current language in the proposed AD would require, from the effective date of the AD, that operators immediately switch from the ALI tasks to the Airbus service bulletins. Delta added that this could be logistically very difficult, especially if the ALI inspection is being performed on several airplanes on the AD's effective date. The FAA agrees to include a grace period fo ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 29k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━