Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-3989; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00160-T]</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> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2025-03-06 and AD 2025-17-07, which apply to certain Airbus SAS Model A318 and A320 series airplanes; Model A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, -133, -151N, -153N, and -171N airplanes; and Model A321-111, -112, -131, -211, -212, -213, -231, -232, -251N, -251NX, -252N, -252NX, -253N, -253NX, -271N, -271NX, -272N, and -272NX airplanes. AD 2025-17-07 also applies to Airbus SAS Model A321-253NY airplanes. AD 2025-03-06 and AD 2025-17-07 require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations. Since the FAA issued AD 2025-03-06 and AD 2025-17-07, the FAA has determined that additional new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations are necessary. This proposed AD would continue to require certain actions in AD 2025-03-06 and all actions in AD 2025-17-07. This proposed AD would also require revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations and add new airplane models. 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 January 2, 2026. </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-2025-3989; 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 European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) material identified in this proposed 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> It is also available at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-3989. • 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> Aaron Nguyen, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 817-222-5134; email: <E T="03">aaron.t.nguyen@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 using a method listed under the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Include “Docket No. FAA-2025-3989; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00160-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 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 Aaron Nguyen, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 2200 South 216th St., Des Moines, WA 98198; phone: 817-222-5134; email: <E T="03">aaron.t.nguyen@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 2025-03-06, Amendment 39-22954 (90 FR 9595, February 14, 2025) (AD 2025-03-06), for certain Airbus SAS Model A318 and A320 series airplanes; Model A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, -133, -151N, -153N, and -171N airplanes; and Model A321-111, -112, -131, -211, -212, -213, -231, -232, -251N, -251NX, -252N, -252NX, -253N, -253NX, -271N, -271NX, -272N, and -272NX airplanes. AD 2025-03-06 was prompted by an MCAI originated by EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union. EASA issued AD 2024-0031, dated January 31, 2024; corrected February 1, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0031), to correct an unsafe condition. AD 2025-03-06 requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations (specified in Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 Airworthiness Limitations Section (ALS) Part 2, Damage Tolerant Airworthiness Limitation Items (DT—ALI), Revision 10, Issue 02, dated November 30, 2023). The FAA issued AD 2025-03-06 to address fatigue cracking, accidental damage, or corrosion in principal structural elements, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the airplane. The FAA issued AD 2025-17-07, Amendment 39-23117 (90 FR 41771, August 27, 2025) (AD 2025-17-07), for certain Airbus SAS Model A318, A320, and A321 series airplanes; and Model A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, -133, -151N, -153N, and -171N airplanes. AD 2025-17-07 was prompted by EASA AD 2024-0208, dated October 25, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0208), to correct an unsafe condition. AD 2025-17-07 requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new airworthiness limitations (specified in Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 ALS Part 2, Damage Tolerant Airworthiness Limitation Items (DT—ALI), Variation 10.3, dated August 7, 2024). The FAA issued AD 2025-17-07 to address fatigue cracking, accidental damage, or corrosion in principal structural elements, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the airplane. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Actions Since EASA AD 2024-0031 and AD 2024-0208 Were Issued</HD> EASA issued AD 2025-0030, dated February 10, 2025 (EASA AD 2025-0030) (also referred to as the MCAI) to supersede AD 2024-0031 and AD 2024-0208 (corresponding to FAA AD 2025-03-06 and AD 2025-17-07, respectively), for certain Airbus SAS Model A318, A319, and A321 series airplanes; and Model A320-211, -212, -214, -215, -216, -231, -232, -233, -251N, -252N, -253N, -271N, -272N, and -273N airplanes. Model A320-215 airplanes are not certificated by the FAA and are not included on the U.S. type certificate data sheet; this proposed AD therefore does not include those airplanes in the applicability. The MCAI states that new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations have been developed, as specified in Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321 ALS Part 2, Damage Tolerant Airworthiness Limitation Items (DT—ALI), Revision 11, dated November 4, 2024. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. The FAA is also proposing to add Model A319-173N and A321-253NY airplanes to the applicability. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-3989. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed EASA AD 2025-0030. This material specifies new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations for airplane structures and safe life limits. This proposed AD would also require EASA AD 2024-0208, which the Director of the Federal Register approved for incorporation by reference as of October 1, 2025 (90 FR 41771, August 27, 2025). This proposed AD would also require EASA AD 2024-0031, which the Director of the Federal Register approved for incorporation by reference as of March 21, 2025 (90 FR 9595, February 14, 2025). This material is reasonably ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 31k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━