Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier Inc. Airplanes

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-1732; Project Identifier MCAI-2024-00249-T]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Bombardier Inc. Airplanes</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 adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Bombardier Inc. Model CL-600-1A11 (600), CL-600-2A12 (601), and CL-600-2B16 (601-3A, 601-3R, and 604 Variants) airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a report of uncommanded nose wheel steering upon landing with touchdown on the runway centerline. This proposed AD would require replacing the nosewheel steering potentiometer universal coupling setscrews. This proposed AD would also require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new life limits for the setscrews. 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 September 26, 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> under Docket No. FAA-2025-1732; 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, the mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI), any comments received, and other information. The street address for Docket Operations is listed above. <E T="03">Material Incorporated by Reference:</E> • For Bombardier material identified in this proposed AD, contact Bombardier Business Aircraft Customer Response Center, 400 Côte Vertu Road West, Dorval, Québec H4S 1Y9, Canada; telephone 514-855-2999; <E T="03">emailac.yul@aero.bombardier.com;</E> website <E T="03">bombardier.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. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> John Massey, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; telephone 516-228-7300; email <E T="03">9-avs-nyaco-cos@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 the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Include “Docket No. FAA-2025-1732; Project Identifier MCAI-2024-00249-T” 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 the 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 John Massey, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; telephone 516-228-7300; email <E T="03">9-avs-nyaco-cos@faa.gov.</E> Any commentary that the FAA receives which is not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket for this rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> Transport Canada, which is the aviation authority for Canada, has issued Transport Canada AD CF-2024-12R1, dated August 13, 2024 (referred to as “the MCAI”), to correct an unsafe condition on all Bombardier Inc. Model CL-600-1A11, CL-600-2A12, and CL-600-2B16 airplanes. The MCAI states that there has been an in-service report where upon landing with touchdown on the runway centerline, following standard procedure, the flight spoilers and thrust reverser were used after the nose wheel touchdown. As the airplane speed reduced below 80 knots, the airplane veered to the left. The airplane was maintained on the runway by use of the rudder and by differential braking. Further investigation determined that the nosewheel steering potentiometer universal coupling setscrews were loose, causing an uncommanded steering input. The FAA is proposing this AD to address uncommanded nosewheel steering due to loose nosewheel steering potentiometer universal coupling setscrews. The unsafe condition, if not addressed, could lead to a runway excursion. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-1732. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed the following material issued by Bombardier: • Bombardier Service Bulletin 600-0782, dated October 30, 2023. • Bombardier Service Bulletin 601-1114, dated October 30, 2023. • Bombardier Service Bulletin 604-32-033, dated October 30, 2023. • Bombardier Service Bulletin 605-32-010, dated October 30, 2023. • Bombardier Service Bulletin 650-32-007, dated October 30, 2023. This material contains procedures to replace the existing nosewheel steering potentiometer universal coupling setscrews with new self-locking setscrews, anaerobic retaining compound, and specified torque, and rig the potentiometer; and perform an operational test of the nosewheel steering system. These documents are distinct since they apply to different airplane models. The FAA also reviewed the following Bombardier material: • Bombardier Challenger 600 Time Limits/Maintenance Checks (TLMC) Temporary Revision (TR) No. TR 5-165, dated October 25, 2023. • Bombardier Challenger 601 TLMC TR No. TR 5-269, dated October 25, 2023. • Bombardier Challenger 601 TLMC TR No. TR 5-283, dated October 25, 2023. • Bombardier Challenger 604 TLMC TR No. 5-2-73, dated October 25, 2023. • Bombardier Challenger 605 TLMC TR No. 5-2-29, dated October 25, 2023. • Bombardier Challenger 650 TLMC TR No. 5-2-5, dated October 16, 2023. This material specifies certain life limits of the safe life items. These documents are distinct since they apply to different airplane models. 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">FAA's Determination</HD> This product has been approved by the aviation authority of another country and is 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 and material referenced above. The FAA is issuing this NPRM after determining that the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Proposed AD Requirements in This NPRM</HD> This proposed AD would require accomplishing the actions specified in the material already described. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 930 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this proposed AD: <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s50,r50,12,12,12"> <TTITLE>Estimated Costs for Required Actions</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Action</CHED> <CHED H="1">Labor cost</CHED> <CHED H="1">Parts cost</CHED> Cost on U.S. operators </CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Setscrew replacement</ENT> <ENT>4 work-hours × $85 per hour = $340</ENT> <ENT>$40</ENT> <ENT>$380</ENT> <ENT>$353,400</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> The FAA has determined that revising the maintenance or inspection program takes an average of 90 work-hours per operator, although the agency recognizes that this number may vary from operator to operator. Since operators incorporate maintenance or inspection program changes for their affected fleet(s), the FAA has determine ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 22k characters. 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