Airworthiness Directives; LAVIA ARGENTINA S.A. Airplanes

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-3990; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00097-A]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; LAVIA ARGENTINA S.A. 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 LAVIA ARGENTINA S.A. (LAVIASA) Model PA-25, PA-25-235, and PA-25-260 airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by reports of corrosion in the front and rear wing spars and cracks in the front wing spar. This proposed AD would require inspecting the front and rear wing spars for corrosion and crack(s); inspecting the upper/lower spar flange of the front wing spar for any crack(s); repairing or replacing front and rear wing spars if crack(s) or corrosion are found, as applicable. 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 NPRM 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-2025-3990; 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 LAVIASA aviacion material identified in this proposed AD, contact LAVIA ARGENTINA S.A., Parque Industrial Mendoza, Eje Norte, manzana 13 lote 3, Las Heras, Mondoza, Argentina; phone: +54 9 2614 67-7682; email: <E T="03">administracion@laviaargentina.com;</E> website: <E T="03">laviaargentina.com</E> . • You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 901 Locust, Kansas City, MO 64106. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Aaron Nguyen, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, [1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590]; phone: (281) 799-3453; 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 <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> . Include “Docket No. FAA-2025-3990; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00097-A” 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, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590. 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> The National Civil Aviation Civil Administration (Argentina), which is the aviation authority for Argentina, has issued Aviación Civil Argentina (ANAC Argentina) AD 2024-05-01, Revision 1, dated December 18, 2024 (ANAC Argentina AD 2024-05-01 R1) (also referred to as the MCAI), to correct an unsafe condition on all LAVIASA Model PA-25, PA-25-235, and PA-25- 260 airplanes. The MCAI states that corrosion was reported in the front and rear wing spars and cracks were found in the front wing spar. In addition, the MCAI states that after the issuance of ANAC Argentina Emergency AD 2023-12-01, dated December 11, 2023, cracks were found in holes that were drilled to fix the leading edges, which could propagate towards the spar web. The MCAI requires doing repetitive inspections of the front and rear wing spars for corrosion and crack(s) and the front wing spar for alteration(s) (change of leading edge, repairs, non-approved perforations) and crack(s); repairing or replacing front and rear wing spars if crack(s), corrosion, or alteration(s) are found. The unsafe condition, if not addressed, could result in a wing separating from the fuselage in flight. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-3990. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed LAVIASA aeroindustria Service Bulletin No. 25-57-09, REV 0, dated November 27, 2023. This material specifies procedures for inspecting the lower wing surface for inspection covers and installing inspection holes and covers as applicable, inspecting the forward and aft wing spars for corrosion and crack(s), and ensuring the drain holes are in the correct position and free from any obstruction(s). The FAA also reviewed LAVIASA aviacion Service Bulletin No. 25-57-11, Rev 00, dated August 23, 2024. This material specifies procedures for installing rectangular inspection doors near the forward wing spar, verifying the location of the screws on the upper and lower T flanges, inspecting to determine if there are more than four holes between ribs on the leading edge tabs, inspecting for crack(s) near the bore holes, doing a borescope inspection of inside surface of the T-flange for crack(s) and if any crack(s) are found uncovering the complete wing and doing a detailed inspection of the wing spar. 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> These products have been approved by the civil 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, that authority has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI 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 in the material already described above, except as discussed under “Differences Between this Proposed AD and the Service Bulletins.” <HD SOURCE="HD1">Differences Between This Proposed AD and the Service Bulletins</HD> Where the service bulletins specify that airplanes will be grounded if any crack(s) are found, this proposed AD would require repair before further flight using instructions obtained from the FAA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 467 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this proposed AD: <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s40,r50,10,r30,r40"> <TTITLE>Estimated Costs</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Action</CHED> <CHED H="1">Labor cost</CHED> <CHED H="1">Parts cost</CHED> <CHED H="1">Cost per product</CHED> <CHED H="1">Cost on U.S. operators</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Inspect wing spars for crack(s)</ENT> <ENT>16 work-hours × $85 per hour = $1,360, per inspection</ENT> <ENT>$0</ENT> <ENT>$1,360, per inspection</ENT> <ENT>$635,120, per inspection.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Inspect wing spars for corrosion</ENT> <ENT>8 work-hours × $85 per hour = $680, per inspection</ENT> <ENT>0</ENT> <ENT>$680, per inspection</ENT> <ENT>$317,560, per inspection.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> The FAA estimates the following costs to do any necessary replacements that wou ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 25k characters. 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