Federal Aviation Administration July 19, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We propose to revise an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to the products listed above. The existing AD currently requires removing from service certain gas generator second stage turbine discs, part number (P/N) 0 292 25 040 0, that are not marked with ``CFR'' before the discs exceed 2,500 cycles-in-service (CIS) since-new or within 20 CIS from the effective date of the AD, whichever occurs later. That AD also requires removing from service certain gas generator second stage turbine discs, P/N 0 292 25 040 0, that are marked with ``CFR'' before the discs exceed 3,500 CIS since-new. Since we issued that AD, Turbomeca has restored all or part of the life limits of the affected discs, and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued AD 2010-0101R2, dated March 24, 2011 to do the same. This proposed AD would still prevent disc failure but extends the life limits of the affected discs. We are proposing this AD to prevent failure of the gas generator second stage turbine disc which could result in the release of high energy debris and damage to the helicopter.

We propose to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to the products listed above. The existing AD currently requires replacing the separation link assembly on the applicable entry and service doors with an improved separation link assembly, and doing related investigative and corrective actions if necessary. Since we issued that AD, we have received a report that an additional airplane is subject to the unsafe condition. This proposed AD would add that airplane to the applicability and also remove certain other airplanes from the applicability. We are proposing this AD to prevent failure of an entry or service door to open fully in the event of an emergency evacuation, which could impede exit from the airplane. This condition could result in injury to passengers or crewmembers.

This action corrects the effective date of a final rule correction, that was published in the Federal Register on July 6, 2011. The effective date in that Final Rule; Correction. inadvertently listed the wrong effective date in the Correction to Final Rule section.