Airworthiness Directives; Leonardo S.p.a. Helicopters

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2026-0025; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-01294-R]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Leonardo S.p.a. Helicopters</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 Leonardo S.p.a. Model AB139, AW139, and AW189 helicopters. This proposed AD was prompted by a report of cracks on the left-hand (LH) and right-hand (RH) tube assemblies installed on the brake pedal assemblies. This proposed AD would require repetitively inspecting the LH and RH tube assemblies for Model AB139 and AW139 helicopters, and the LH and RH pedal shaft assemblies for Model AW189 helicopters, and depending on the results of the inspection, corrective actions. This proposed AD would also prohibit installing certain parts unless certain requirements are met. 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 March 12, 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-2026-0025; 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; phone: +49 221 8999 000; email: <E T="03">ADs@easa.europa.eu;</E> website: <E T="03">easa.europa.eu.</E> You may find the EASA material on the EASA website at <E T="03">ad.easa.europa.eu.</E> • You may view this material at the FAA, Office of the Regional Counsel, Southwest Region, 10101 Hillwood Parkway, Room 6N-321, Fort Worth, TX 76177. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Steven Warwick, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (817) 222-5225; email: <E T="03">steven.r.warwick@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-2026-0025; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-01294-R” 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 Steven Warwick, 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> EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union, has issued EASA AD 2025-0163, dated July 30, 2025 (EASA AD 2025-0163) (also referred to as the MCAI), to correct an unsafe condition on Leonardo S.p.A. Model AB139, AW139, and AW189 helicopters. The MCAI states that occurrences of cracking on the LH and RH pilot pedal tubes were reported on a Model AW139 helicopter. The MCAI further states subsequent investigation revealed that the cracks originated from the locking slot where the upper clamping bolt engages with the tube; however, the root cause of the tube cracking is still under investigation. Additionally, the MCAI states that due to design similarity of the braking pedal assembly architecture, Model AB139 and AW189 helicopters could be also affected by the same structural damage. The FAA is issuing this AD to detect and address cracks on the LH and RH tube assemblies installed on the brake pedal assemblies. This unsafe condition, if not addressed, could lead to structural failure of the brake pedal assembly and result in reduced control of the helicopter around the yaw axis. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2026-0025. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed EASA AD 2025-0163, which specifies procedures for repetitive inspections of certain part-numbered LH and RH tube assemblies (for Models AB139 and AW139) and certain part-numbered LH and RH pedal shaft assemblies (for Model AW189) installed on the brake pedal assemblies. Depending on the inspection results, EASA AD specifies procedures for replacing an affected part with a serviceable part or, for the copilot side only, as an alternative to replacing an affected part, installing a temporary serviceable part for the copilot pedal assembly set, performing repetitive inspections, manufacturing and installing a placard, and revising the limitations section of the rotorcraft flight manual (RFM) for the helicopter. EASA AD 2025-0163 also prohibits installing an affected part on any helicopter unless certain requirements are met. 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 (CAA) 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 the actions specified in EASA AD 2025-0163, described previously, as incorporated by reference, except for any differences identified as exceptions in the regulatory text of this proposed AD. The owner/operator (pilot) holding at least a private pilot certificate may revise the existing RFM and must enter compliance with the applicable paragraph(s) of the AD into the helicopter maintenance records in accordance with 14 CFR 43.9(a) and 91.417(a)(2)(v). The pilot may perform these actions because they only involve revising the existing RFM for the helicopter. This action could be performed equally well by a pilot or mechanic. This is an exception to the FAA's standard maintenance regulations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Explanation of Required Compliance Information</HD> In the FAA's ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency of the AD process, the FAA developed a process to use some civil CAA ADs as the primary source of information for compliance with requirements for corresponding FAA ADs. The FAA has been coordinating this process with manufacturers and CAAs. As a result, the FAA proposes to incorporate EASA AD 2025-0163 by reference in the FAA final rule. This proposed AD would, therefore, require compliance with EASA AD 2025-0163 in its entirety through that incorporation, except for any differences identified as exceptions in the regulatory text of this proposed AD. Using common terms that are the same as the heading of a particular section in EASA AD 2025-0163 does not mean that operators need comp ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 20k characters. 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