Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-0624; Project Identifier MCAI-2024-00628-T; Amendment 39-23148; AD 2025-19-08]</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 adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus SAS Model A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, and -133 airplanes; Model A320-211, -212, -214, -216, -231, -232, and -233 airplanes; and Model A321-211, -212, -213, -231, and -232 airplanes. This AD was prompted by a report that cracks were found following fatigue tests for the new lower wing cover material on airplanes equipped with sharklets. This AD requires repetitive inspections for discrepancies and corrective action. 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 December 30, 2025. The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of December 30, 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-2025-0624; 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 European Union Aviation Safety Agency (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-2025-0624. <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 by adding an AD that would apply to all Airbus SAS Model A319-111, -112, -113, -114, -115, -131, -132, and -133 airplanes; Model A320-211, -212, -214, -216, -231, -232, and -233 airplanes; and Model A321-211, -212, -213, -231, and -232 airplanes. The NPRM was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on April 16, 2025 (90 FR 15942). The NPRM was prompted by AD 2024-0201R1, dated December 2, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0201R1) (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 that cracks were found following fatigue tests for the new lower wing cover material on airplanes equipped with sharklets. This condition, if not detected and corrected, could reduce the structural integrity of the outer wing. In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to require repetitive inspections for discrepancies and corrective action, as specified in EASA AD 2024-0201R1. 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-2025-0624. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Discussion of Final Airworthiness Directive</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments</HD> The FAA received comments from an individual who supported the NPRM and had an additional comment. The FAA received additional comments from Delta Air Lines (Delta). The following presents the comments received on the NPRM and the FAA's response. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Request To Require Inspectors From Different Institutions</HD> An individual suggested that the people doing the inspections specified in the proposed AD be from different institutions, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Boeing, the FAA, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and the aviation company using the airplane. The commenter suggested the team would have to work together to make sure the airplane was safe and agree on the safety issue before the airplane would be allowed to fly. The FAA agrees to clarify. FAA regulations (14 CFR 43.3) stipulate who can perform maintenance on or alter an airplane on the U.S. registry, including inspections required by an AD. AD actions must be performed by people holding certain certificates or having specialized training that provides them the knowledge necessary to properly inspect and repair airplanes. In addition, FAA regulations (14 CFR 43.7) stipulate who is authorized to approve an airplane for return to service after maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding, or alteration, including inspections required by an AD. No change to this AD is necessary. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Request To Revise the Reporting Requirement</HD> Delta requested that the FAA revise paragraph (h)(4) of the proposed AD to not require an inspection report if no discrepancy is found, or if any discrepancy is found and Airbus SAS's EASA Design Organization Approval (DOA) is contacted for repair instructions. Delta noted that the service information referenced in EASA AD 2024-0201R1 specifies to contact Airbus if there are any findings. Delta also noted that the provisions of paragraph (h)(5) of the proposed AD would allow for approval of repair instructions for any discrepancies ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> approved repair instructions) by the FAA, EASA, or Airbus SAS's EASA DOA, and that this option allows operators to seek the FAA's approval of repair instructions in lieu of only Airbus. Delta stated there is no need to report damage to Airbus on a specific report form if Airbus is contacted for repair instructions because the data is required to be provided to Airbus for approval of the repair instructions. Delta also stated that Airbus should know that if no repair is requested, then either no damage was found or the operator obtained approval from the FAA and should report the inspection findings to Airbus. The FAA agrees it is unnecessary to submit an inspection report if no discrepancies are found, and that reporting inspection results to Airbus would also be unnecessary regardless of whether Airbus SAS's EASA DOA, the FAA, or EASA was contacted for repair instructions. The FAA has re-evaluated the proposed reporting requirement and determined this AD does not need to require submitting a report for all inspection results, which would include reporting any and no findings. The FAA has revised the AD to remove the proposed paragraph (h)(4) and references to the reporting requirement in the preamble and cost estimate. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Conclusion</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 reviewed the relevant data, considered any comments received, 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> The FAA reviewed EASA AD 2024-0201R1, which specifies procedures for repetitive special detailed inspections (SDIs) for discrepancies (cracking) of the bottom wing surface area between rib 19 and rib 21, forward of stringer 8, both left-hand (LH) and right-hand (RH) sides, and, depending on findings, accomplishment of applicable corrective action (contacting Airbus for repair instructions). 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">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD affects 1,924 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this AD: <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s100,xs44,16C,20C"> <TTITLE>Estimated Costs for Required Actions</TTITLE> <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">6 work-hours × $85 per hour = $510</ENT> <ENT>None</ENT> <ENT>$510</ENT> <ENT>$981,240</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> The FAA has received no definitive data on which to base the cost estimates for the on-condition repairs specified in this AD. <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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. 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