Airworthiness Directives; Piaggio Aviation S.p.A. Airplanes

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-5027; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00023-A]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Piaggio Aviation S.p.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 certain Piaggio Aviation S.p.A. (Piaggio) Model P-180 airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a report of chafing in the flap transmission shafts. This proposed AD would require inspecting the flap transmission shaft for chafing or any damage (surface abrasions, grooves or rubbing tracks, and metallic smears or transfers), measuring specific gaps, and, depending on findings, accomplishing applicable corrective actions. 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 26, 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-2025-5027; 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 Piaggio Aerospace material identified in this AD, contact Piaggio, P180 Customer Support, via Pionieri e Aviatori d'Italia, snc—16154 Genoa, Italy; phone: +39 331 679 74 93; email: <E T="03">technicalsupport@piaggioaerospace.it.</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. It is also available at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-5027. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Frank Huynh, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (404) 983-5288; email: <E T="03">frank.huynh@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-2025-5027; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00023-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 Frank Huynh, 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 European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union, has issued EASA AD 2025-0014, dated January 13, 2025 (EASA AD 2025-0014) (also referred to as the MCAI), to correct an unsafe condition on certain serial-numbered Piaggio Model P-180 airplanes. The MCAI states that an occurrence was reported where, during scheduled airplane maintenance, chafing was detected on the flap transmission shafts. A subsequent investigation identified a limited clearance between flap transmission shafts 1 and 7 and the wing rib at wing station 440 and between flap transmission shaft 7 and the cabin door seal inflation system pneumatic pipe. This condition, if not detected and corrected, could affect the integrity of the flap transmission and lead to reduced control of the airplane. To address the unsafe condition, the MCAI requires inspecting the flap transmission shafts, measuring specific gaps, and, depending on the findings, accomplishing corrective actions. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-5027. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed Piaggio Aerospace Service Bulletin 80-0498, Revision 0, dated August 2, 2024 (Piaggio SB 80-0498, Revision 0). This material specifies procedures for inspecting the flap transmission shaft for chafing or any damage (surface abrasions, grooves or rubbing tracks, and metallic smears or transfers), measuring specific gaps, and depending on findings, accomplishing applicable corrective actions. 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 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, except as discussed under “Differences Between this Proposed AD and the Referenced Material.” <HD SOURCE="HD1">Differences Between This Proposed AD and the Referenced Material</HD> The referenced material requires contacting Piaggio for approved repair instructions. This proposed AD would require contacting either the Manager, International Validation Branch, FAA; EASA; or Piaggio's EASA Design Organization Approval (DOA), for approved repair instructions. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 98 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="s50,r50,10,10,12"> <TTITLE>Estimated Costs</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">Initial inspection of flap transmission shafts</ENT> <ENT>28 work-hours × $85 per hour = $2,380</ENT> <ENT>$0</ENT> <ENT>$2,380</ENT> <ENT>$233,240</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> The FAA estimates the following costs to do any necessary rework, repairs or replacements that would be required based on the results of the proposed inspection. Any corrective action that may be needed as a result of the proposed inspection can vary from airplane to airplane. The agency has no way of determining the number of airplanes that might need this rework, repairs, or replacements: <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s50,r50,10,xs95"> <TTITLE>On-Condition 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> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Repetitive inspections of flap transmission shafts</ENT> <ENT>28 work-hours × $85 per hour = $2,380, per inspection</ENT> <ENT>$0</ENT> <ENT>$2,380, per inspection.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Rework of wing rib(s)</ENT> <ENT>40 work-hours × $85 per hour = $3,400, per rework</ENT> <ENT>0</ENT> <ENT>$3,400, per rework.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Repair of pneumatic pipe</ENT> <ENT>20 work-hours × $85 per h ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 21k characters. 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