The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that it is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus A320 family aircraft. This directive impacts jets across A318, A319, A320, and A321 models. This would affect over 1,203 Airbus A320 family aircraft in the United States registry.
An Airworthiness Directive (commonly abbreviated as an AD) is a notification to owners and operators of certified aircraft that a known safety deficiency with a particular model of aircraft, engine, avionics or other system exists and must be corrected. ADs are mandatory in most jurisdictions and often contain dates or aircraft flying hours by which compliance must be completed.
The FAA reported 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. Furthermore, 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.
The FAA says the AD requires repetitive high frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspections of the central node windshield area for cracking. Moreover, if operators do find cracking, they have to perform the necessary corrective measures.
These actions are specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD. The FAA incorporated these details into the document for reference. Overall, the government body is sharing this directive due to the unsafe condition on these units
“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,” the FAA said in the document.
“Additional analysis showed that certain certification requirements for damage tolerance and fatigue are not met on airplanes in a post-production Modification 22058 configuration. The FAA is issuing this AD to address this 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.”
Source: Simple Flying