Summary
The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2002-14-28, which applies to all de Havilland Inc. (type certificate currently held by Viking Air Limited) Model DHC-2 Mk. I, DHC-2 Mk. II, and DHC-2 Mk. III airplanes. AD 2002-14-28 establishes a life limit for the front fuselage struts and requires repetitively replacing the front fuselage struts every 15 years or repetitively inspecting the struts for corrosion or fatigue damage and replacing when the damage exceeds a certain level. Since the FAA issued AD 2002-14-28, Transport Canada superseded its mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) to correct this unsafe condition on these products. This proposed AD would require either doing recurring visual inspections, borescope inspections, and non-destructive inspections (NDIs) of the struts and airframe lugs with corrective action as necessary or replacing the struts every 15 years and doing recurring NDIs of the airframe lugs with corrective action as necessary. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.