An airworthiness directive (AD) is a notification to Type Certificate Holders (TCH), Supplemental Type Certificate Holders (STCH) owners and operators of certified Aircraft, Engines or Components.
That a known safety related deficiency in respect of an aircraft, engine, or component has been found which must be corrected. Such correction may be based on compliance with an existing service bulletin (SB) or in accordance with explicit instructions contained within the AD.
If an EASA certified aircraft has any AD which is due , however which has not been complied with, the aircraft will not be considered airworthy, and the Certificate of Airworthiness is considered invalid until such times as the situation is rectified.
Airworthiness Directives AD’s usually result from service difficulty (SD) reporting (FAA System) or MOR system European Aircraft, either by operators or from acquired data. AD’s may be Emergency means immediate compliance or the compliance requirement may be delivered in respect of Hours Cycles or Landings.
AD’s may be issued either by the national civil aviation authority of the country of aircraft manufacture or of aircraft registration.
When Airworthiness Directives AD’s are issued by the country of registration they are almost always coordinated with the civil aviation authority of the country of manufacture to ensure that conflicting AD’s are not issued.
The purpose of an AD is to notify aircraft owners regarding the potential unsafe condition, or that the aircraft may not be in conformity with its basis of certification or of other conditions that affect the aircraft’s airworthiness, or that there are mandatory actions that must be carried out to ensure continued safe operation, or that, in some urgent cases, the aircraft must not be flown until a corrective action plan is designed and carried out. Typically this may involve an inspection activity.
Both the FAA ad EASA Make AD’s available on line for FAA AD’s the database provides you with all Airworthiness Directives (AD’s) issued by the FAA which are still in effect ! with some dating back to the 1940’s. this is a significant resource. You can quickly view recently published data in this database. AD’s can be searched by any word or group of words; or viewed by Number or Make. It is also possible to view historical AD information to see old or cancelled AD’s.
Airworthiness Directives are issued by EASA, acting in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 on behalf of the European Community, its Member States and of the European third countries that participate in the activities of EASA under Article 66 of that Regulation.
In accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) 2042/2003 Annex I, Part-M.A.301, the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft shall be ensured by accomplishing any applicable AD’s. Consequently, no person may operate an aircraft to which an AD applies, except in accordance with the requirements of that AD unless otherwise specified by the Agency [Commission Regulation (EC) 2042/2003 Annex I, Part-M.A.303] or agreed with the Authority of the State of Registry.
AD’s applicable to an EASA approved type certificate are those AD’s which have been issued or adopted by the Agency.
AD’s are issued by the Agency through Agency decisions. for AD’s issued after 28-09-2003: ED Decision 2/2003 on the implementation of airworthiness directives for products, parts and appliances designed in third countries where as for AD’s issued before 28-09-2003: EU Commission Regulation (EC) 1702/2003 article 2 (3)(a)(iii) (AD’s issued by the State of Design for products, parts and appliances).
The dissemination of airworthiness directives to aircraft owners is a responsibility of the State of Registry and does not belong to the Agency.
In the case of EASA Airworthiness Directive information the following applies Biweekly reports are published every second Tuesday, recapitulating all AD publications of the past 2 weeks, from the first Monday to the second Sunday. Please note that the primary source of information for EASA AD’s remains the AD publishing tool and that the Biweekly report is provided as an additional service only.
Full compliance management for Airworthiness Directives (AD) typically consists of:
Monitoring aircraft, engine and component Ads, Evaluating applicability to aircraft, engine and component Ads and Preparation for compliance by the issue of an Engineering Order (EO).
Sofema Aviation Services offers several regulatory trainings which consider Aircraft Airworthiness Directives including EASA Part M and Maintenance Planning Trainings.
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