Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Helicopters

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2024-2663; Project Identifier MCAI-2023-00200-R; Amendment 39-23036; AD 2025-10-02]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Helicopters</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 adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Helicopters Model EC225LP helicopters. This AD was prompted by the identification of missing electrical bonding on a certain part-numbered additional and optional search light (search light). This AD requires installing an electrical bonding braid modification. These actions are 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 July 8, 2025. The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of July 8, 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. FAA-2024-2663; 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; phone: +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 at <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 Pkwy., Room 6N-321, Fort Worth, TX 76177. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110. It is also available at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2024-2663. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kurt Ladendorf, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (817) 222-5254; email: <E T="03">Kurt.D.Ladendorf@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 by adding an AD that would apply to certain Airbus Helicopters Model EC225LP helicopters. The NPRM published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on December 23, 2024 (89 FR 104465). The NPRM was prompted by EASA AD 2023-0030, dated February 2, 2023 (EASA AD 2023-0030) (also referred to as the MCAI), issued by EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union. The MCAI states missing electrical bonding was identified on a certain part-numbered search light installed on some Model EC 225 LP helicopters. The MCAI further states that the location where the search light is installed is an area that could get struck by lightning, which, in case of a lightning strike, could lead to potential total loss of electrical distribution, with loss of electrically supplied systems, and subsequent reduced control of the helicopter. In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to require installing an electrical bonding braid modification and prohibit installing that part-numbered search light unless the modification is done. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2024-2663. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Discussion of Final Airworthiness Directive</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments</HD> The FAA received no comments on the NPRM or on the determination of the costs. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Conclusion</HD> These products have been approved by the aviation authority of another country and are approved for operation in the United States. Pursuant to the FAA's bilateral agreement with this State of Design Authority, it has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI referenced above. The FAA reviewed the relevant data and determined that air safety requires adopting this AD as proposed. Accordingly, the FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. Except for minor editorial changes, and any other changes described previously, this AD is adopted as proposed in the NPRM. None of the changes will increase the economic burden on any operator. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> EASA AD 2023-0030 requires installing an electrical bonding braid modification for a certain part-numbered search light under the sponson. EASA AD 2023-0030 also prohibits installing that part-numbered search light from being installed unless its requirements are met. 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">Differences Between This AD and the MCAI</HD> The MCAI allows a +10% tolerance to the calendar compliance time to install the electrical bonding braid modification, whereas this AD does not allow that tolerance. If the insulation resistance value is 8 or more ohms as a result of the continuity test that is specified in the material referenced in EASA AD 2023-0030, this AD requires accomplishing corrective action in accordance with a method approved by the FAA, EASA, or Airbus Helicopters' EASA Design Organization Approval, whereas the MCAI and the material referenced in the MCAI are not specific about the continuity test. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD affects 9 helicopters of U.S. registry. Labor rates are estimated at $85 per work-hour. Based on these numbers, the FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this AD. Installing an electrical bonding braid modification takes 14 work-hours and parts cost $16,370 for an estimated cost of $17,560 per helicopter and up to $158,040 for the U.S. fleet. Performing a continuity test takes a minimal amount of time for a nominal cost. Depending on the results, corrective action could vary significantly from helicopter to helicopter. The FAA has no data to determine the costs to accomplish the corrective action. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Authority for This Rulemaking</HD> Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority. The FAA is issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements. Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Regulatory Findings</HD> This AD will not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This AD will not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government. For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this AD: (1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866, (2) Will not affect intrastate aviation in Alaska, and (3) Will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 39</HD> Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Incorporation by reference, Safety. </LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Amendment</HD> Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA amends 14 CFR part 39 as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 39—AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="14" PART="39"> 1. The authority citation for part 39 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> 49 U.S.C. 106(g), 40113, 44701. </REGTEXT> <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 39.13</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>[Amended]</SUBJECT> </SECTION> <REGTEXT TITLE="14" PART="39"> 2. The FAA amends § 39.13 by adding the following new airworthiness directive: <EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD2"> <E T="04">2025-10-02 Airbus Helicopters:</E> Amendment 39-23036; Docket No. FAA-2024-2663; Project Identifier MCAI-2023-00200-R. </HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">(a) Effective Date</HD> This airworthiness directive (AD) is effective July 8, 2025. <HD SOURCE="HD1">(b) Affected ADs</HD> None. <HD SOURCE="HD1">(c) Applicability</HD> This AD applies to Airbus Helicopters Model EC225LP helicopters, certificated in any category, as identified in European Union Aviation Safety Agency AD 2023-0030, dated February 2, 2023 (EASA AD 2023-0030). <HD SOURCE="HD1">(d) Subje ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━