FAA Issues Airworthiness Directive for Airbus A320 Family
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that it is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus A320 family aircraft. The group estimates that the notification affects almost 1200 planes. The AD is about fatigue cracks around the windshield.Problem in nutshell
An Airworthiness Directive is a notification to owners and operators that there is a safety deficiency with a specific model of aircraft or a system part of it. According to an FAA document, the directive impacts jets across A318, A319, A320, and A321 models.
The FAA said that there were reports of fatigue cracks on continuity fittings at the lower framing of the front windshield on aircraft that had a certain production modification. Following analysis, it is evident that specific certification requirements for damage tolerance and fatigue are not met on planes in a particular post-production modification configuration.
Fixing the problem
The FAA says that the AD requires repetitive high-frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspections of the central node windshield area for cracking. If operators do find cracking, they have to perform the necessary corrective measures. These measures are specified in EASA AD and the FAA has incorporated these details into the document for reference.
“The FAA is issuing this AD to address fatigue cracks on continuity fittings at the lower framing of the front windshield on airplanes on which Airbus Production Modification 22058 (which is included in Airbus Modification 21999) has been embodied,”
In another statement, the FAA stated that the AD is issued to address the condition, which could lead to failure of the continuity fittings at the lower node of the windshield central frame, possibly resulting in decompression of the airplane and injury to occupants.
Most major US carriers presently have several A320 family aircraft within their fleets. It remains to be seen whether any of these manufactured lots of Airbus planes are being operated by non-US airlines. Airbus A-320 family remains one of the most popular passenger aircraft in the world currently.
What are your thoughts about this FAA airworthiness directive? Does this update surprise you? Let us know what you think of the situation in the comment section.
