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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 29 / Tuesday, February 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
searching for and locating Docket No.
FAA20210021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matt Fuller, AD Program Manager, Operational Safety Branch, Airworthiness Products Section, General Aviation & Rotorcraft Unit, FAA, 10101 Hillwood Pkwy., Fort Worth, TX 76177; telephone 817222
5110; email matthew.fuller@faa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Comments Invited The FAA invites you to send any written data, views, or arguments about this final rule. Send your comments to an address listed under ADDRESSES.
Include Docket No. FAA20210021
and Project Identifier MCAI2020
01088R at the beginning of your comments. The most helpful comments reference a specific portion of the final rule, explain the reason for any recommended change, and include supporting data. The FAA will consider all comments received by the closing date and may amend this final rule because of those comments.
Except for Confidential Business Information CBI as described in the following paragraph, and other information as described in 14 CFR
11.35, the FAA will post all comments received, without change, to https
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information you provide. The agency will also post a report summarizing each substantive verbal contact received about this final rule.

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Confidential Business Information CBI is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner.
Under the Freedom of Information Act FOIA 5 U.S.C. 552, CBI is exempt from public disclosure. If your comments responsive to this AD contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or responsive to this AD, it is important that you clearly designate the submitted comments as CBI. Please mark each page of your submission containing CBI as PROPIN. The FAA
will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the FOIA, and they will not be placed in the public docket of this AD. Submissions containing CBI
should be sent to Matt Fuller, AD
Program Manager, Operational Safety Branch, Airworthiness Products Section, General Aviation & Rotorcraft Unit, FAA, 10101 Hillwood Pkwy., Fort Worth, TX 76177; telephone 817222
5110; email matthew.fuller@faa.gov.
Any commentary that the FAA receives
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which is not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket for this rulemaking.
Discussion EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union, has issued AD No. 20200175, dated August 5, 2020 EASA AD 2020
0175, for all serial-numbered Airbus Helicopters Model AS 350 and AS 355
helicopters if equipped with a left-hand LH and/or right-hand RH sliding door. EASA advises that an AS 350 B3
helicopter lost the LH door in-flight.
The event occurred while flying with the door locked in the open position.
The results of the technical analysis of this event indicated that the loss of the sliding door resulted from the disengagement of the roller from the upper rail. This condition, if not detected and corrected, could lead to sliding door in-flight detachment, possibly resulting in damage to the helicopter, and/or injury to persons on the ground. EASA also advises that this scenario may also develop on AS 355
helicopters sliding doors due to design similarity. Accordingly, EASA AD
20200175 requires a one-time detailed inspection of the LH and/or RH sliding doors and, depending on findings, accomplishment of applicable corrective actions.
FAAs Determination These helicopters have been approved by EASA and are approved for operation in the United States. Pursuant to the FAAs bilateral agreement with the European Union, EASA has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in its AD. The FAA is issuing this AD
after evaluating all information provided by EASA and determining the unsafe condition exists and is likely to exist or develop on other helicopters of the same type designs.
Related Service Information Under 1
CFR Part 51
Airbus Helicopters has issued Alert Service Bulletin ASB No. AS350
52.00.54 and ASB No. AS35552.00.32, each Revision 1 and each dated July 30, 2020 ASB AS35052.00.54 and ASB
AS35552.00.32. ASB AS35052.00.54
applies to Model AS350-series helicopters and ASB AS35552.00.32
applies to Model AS355-series helicopters. The ASBs specify inspecting the upper rail and roller of the of the LH and/or RH sliding doors by inspecting the upper rail, and making sure that the parallelism between the sliding door and its frame is correct, that the front roller is in good condition, and that the installation of the front roller is
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correct. The ASBs also specify notifying Airbus Helicopters if any part is replaced and providing the part number of the part replaced and the serial number and time since new of the helicopter.
This service information is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the ADDRESSES section.
AD Requirements This AD requires, within 30 hours time-in-service TIS after the effective date of this AD, inspecting the upper rail of each RH and LH door for parallelism, deformation, corrosion, and cracking and repairing or replacing the upper rail before further flight if necessary; and with each sliding door removed, inspecting the front roller to determine if it is below the minimum diameter and height, if it has any corrosion or flat spot, and if it is correctly installed. If the front roller is below the minimum diameter, below the minimum height, or has any flat spot or corrosion, this AD requires removing the front roller from service before further flight. If the front roller was not correctly installed, this AD
requires reinstalling it correctly before further flight.
Differences Between This AD and the EASA AD
Due to a recent additional report of an in-flight door loss, this AD requires compliance within 30 hours TIS after the effective date of the AD; EASA AD
20200175 requires compliance within 165 flight hours or 13 months and 6
days, whichever occurs first. The EASA
AD requires reporting information to Airbus Helicopters; this AD does not.
Regulatory Flexibility Act The requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA do not apply when an agency finds good cause pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553 to adopt a rule without prior notice and comment. Because the FAA has determined that it has good cause to adopt this rule without notice and comment, RFA analysis is not required.
Costs of Compliance The FAA estimates that this AD
affects 965 helicopters of U.S. Registry and that operators may incur the following costs in order to comply with this AD. Labor costs are $85 per workhour.
Inspecting each door will take about 2 work-hours for an estimated cost of $170 per helicopter and $164,050 for the U.S. fleet.

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