Federal Aviation Administration Mandates Inspections of Older Piper Aircraft

Updated February 3, 2013, 7:46 p.m. ET

By ANDY PASZTOR
The Wall Street Journal

Regulators on Monday will mandate enhanced inspections and repairs where necessary to cables that control tail surfaces on about 30,000 Piper aircraft, some of the most popular general-aviation planes sold in the U.S.

Prompted by at least one accident and a serious incident stemming from such malfunctioning flight-control systems in recent years, the Federal Aviation Administration wants planes that are 15 years or older to be checked for damaged or corroded cables during their next annual inspection. Younger planes are supposed to undergo the same inspection once they reach 15 years.

The FAA's safety directive, slated to become final when it is published in Monday's Federal Register, also mandates repetitive follow-up inspections. The move is unusual because it follows a pair of nonbinding recommendations by the agency on the topic going back 10 years, as well as more-recent safety letters and bulletins issues by the manufacturer.

The FAA said the move was prompted by "reports of control cable assembly failures that may lead to failure" to control movable tail surfaces that are essential to direct the noses of the planes up or down.

The mandate covers more than 34,000 propeller-driven Piper Cherokee, Saratoga, Lance and Seminole models, and industry officials said most of them are older than 15 years.

In comments submitted to the FAA, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said previously nonbinding government safety bulletins calling for inspections of all cable fittings for corrosion or cracking weren't adequate

Closely held Piper Aircraft Inc., based in Vero Beach, Fla., on Sunday issued a statement noting it "has cooperated fully with the FAA in developing" the safety directive and considers the move "helpful to increase overall flight safety."

In the statement, Jackie Carlson, Piper's director of communications, also said the company in 2010 and 2012 told owners and operators of the affected planes to inspect the control cables and associated hardware. In all three hazardous events cited by the safety board, according to Piper's statement, "evidence of approaching failure" of the cable or control systems "should have been clearly observable" during recurrent inspections.

Considering the large number of Piper aircraft that have been "in operation in the past 50 years, the historical data demonstrate that trained mechanics can identify these conditions before failure occurs," according to the company.

An FAA spokeswoman declined to comment. The agency initially proposed the safety directive last August but then invited comments.

In the final version of the directive, scheduled to become effective in early March, the FAA said safety data show "that certain Piper models have multiple reports" of cracked, corroded or frayed cables.

Source:   http://online.wsj.com