Federal Aviation Administration July 14, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rule amends the regulations governing maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations performed on U.S. aeronautical products by certain Canadian persons. The amendment removes specific regulatory references and other requirements unique to that work when performed in Canada. The United States and Canada have entered into an international agreement called a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) that is in line with BASAs negotiated with other countries. The FAA and Canada are negotiating Maintenance Implementation Procedures (MIP) to accompany the BASA. The current rule contains specific regulatory language that constrains developing a standardized MIP. The MIP will require compliance with the applicable Canadian regulations plus special conditions that will ensure a level of safety equivalent to that provided by the FAA's regulations. This action is necessary for the MIP to proceed.

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD), which applies to certain McDonnell Douglas transport category airplanes. That AD currently requires implementation of a program of structural inspections to detect and correct fatigue cracking in order to ensure the continued airworthiness of these airplanes as they approach the manufacturer's original fatigue design life goal. This new AD requires implementation of a program of structural inspections of baseline structure to detect and correct fatigue cracking in order to ensure the continued airworthiness of these airplanes as they approach the manufacturer's original fatigue design life goal. This AD is prompted by a significant number of these airplanes approaching or exceeding the design service goal on which the initial type certification approval was predicated. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct fatigue cracking that could compromise the structural integrity of these airplanes.