Summary
This document proposes to revise an earlier proposed airworthiness directive (AD) that would have superseded AD 85-13-03 R2, which currently requires repetitively inspecting the engine mount beams for cracks on certain Cessna Aircraft Company (Cessna) Models 402C and 414A airplanes, and replacing any cracked beams. The earlier proposed AD would have retained the repetitive inspections initially, and would have required eventual modification of the engine mount beams upon the accumulation of a certain amount of usage time on the airplane, as terminating action for the repetitive inspections. Since publication of that proposal, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined that the proposed action is still a valid safety issue, but that the engine mount beams should be modified for all airplanes instead of relying on repetitive inspections to detect cracks until each airplane accumulates a certain amount of usage time. This proposed AD revises the previous proposal by incorporating this change. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent failure of the engine mount beam caused by fatigue cracks, which could result in loss of the engine with consequent loss of the airplane. Since the comment period for the original proposal has closed and the proposed AD has been changed from what was originally proposed, the FAA is allowing additional time for the public to comment.