AD 2008-17-17

This AD is effective October 2, 2008.

The Director of the Federal Register approved the incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in this AD as of October 2, 2008.

For service information identified in this AD, contact Boeing Commercial Airplanes, P.O. Box 3707, Seattle, Washington 98124-2207.

Ivan Li, Aerospace Engineer, Airframe Branch, ANM-120S, FAA, Seattle Aircraft Certification Office, 1601 Lind Avenue, SW., Renton, Washington 98057-3356; telephone (425) 917-6437; fax (425) 917-6590.

We issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend 14 CFR part 39 to include an airworthiness directive (AD) that would apply to all Boeing Model 747 airplanes. That NPRM was published in the Federal Register on February 8, 2008 (73 FR 7486). That NPRM proposed to require a one-time inspection of certain fuselage skins at section 41 to find any external doublers that cover the inspection areas and to identify the external doublers that end on a stringer and those that do not, and related investigative and corrective actions if necessary.

We gave the public the opportunity to participate in developing this AD. We considered the comments received from the two commenters.

Boeing concurs with the contents of the NPRM.

Japan Airlines (JAL) requests that we delay issuance of the AD until Boeing has published a revision to Boeing Alert Service Bulletin 747-53A2704, dated October 4, 2007, to extend the compliance time from 16,000 total flight cycles to 25,000 total flight cycles for accomplishing the general visual inspection for external doublers in Areas 2 and 3. If we cannot delay issuance of the AD, then JAL requests that we revise the compliance time accordingly in this AD. JAL states that Boeing has advised that only the inspection of Area 1 must be done before 16,000 total flight cycles, and that Areas 2 and 3 should be inspected together with the high frequency eddy current inspection of the skin-to-stringer attachments before 25,000 total flight cycles. JAL asserts that Boeing will revise the compliance time in the next revision to the service bulletin.

We do not agree to delay issuance of this AD, or to revise the compliance time for inspecting for external doublers in Areas 2 and 3. We have coordinated with Boeing, and Boeing has no plans, at this time, to revise the service bulletin. Boeing also has confirmed that the inspection of Areas 1, 2, and 3 was left at 16,000 total flight cycles for simplicity of the compliance table in the service bulletin. Therefore, we agree that, for Groups 1 through 5 airplanes, the general visual inspection for external doublers in Areas 2 and 3 may be done before 25,000 total flight cycles, or within 2,000 flight cycles after the effective date of this AD, whichever occurs later. However, due to the unique nature of JAL's request, it would be best to address it using the alternative methods of compliance (AMOC) process, rather than revising this AD. We will consider requests for adjustments to the compliance time, under the provisions of paragraph (h) of this AD, if data are submitted to substantiate that such an adjustment would provide an acceptable level of safety. We have not changed the AD in this regard.

We reviewed the relevant data, considered the comments received, and determined that air safety and the public interest require adopting the AD as proposed.

We estimate that this AD affects 165 airplanes of U.S. registry. We also estimate that it takes up to 64 work-hours per product to comply with this AD. The average labor rate is $80 per work-hour. Based on these figures, we estimate the cost of this AD to the U.S. operators to be $844,800 or $5,120 per product.

Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. “Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs,” describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority.

We are issuing this rulemaking under the authority described in “Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart III, Section 44701: General requirements.” Under that section, Congress charges the FAA with promoting safe flight of civil aircraft in air commerce by prescribing regulations for practices, methods, and procedures the Administrator finds necessary for safety in air commerce. This regulation is within the scope of that authority because it addresses an unsafe condition that is likely to exist or develop on products identified in this rulemaking action.

This AD will not have federalism implications under Executive Order 13132. This AD will not have a substantial direct effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.

For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this AD:

(1) Is not a “significant regulatory action” under Executive Order 12866,

(2) Is not a “significant rule” under DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures (44 FR 11034, February 26, 1979), and

(3) Will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

You can find our regulatory evaluation and the estimated costs of compliance in the AD Docket.

Accordingly, under the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the FAA amends 14 CFR part 39 as follows:

1. The authority citation for part 39 continues to read as follows:

2. The FAA amends § 39.13 by adding the following new AD: