Airworthiness Directive 2002-05-03
one-timeAirworthiness Directives; General Electric Company CF6-6, CF6-45, and CF6-50 Series Turbofan Engines
What this AD requires
This amendment supersedes an existing airworthiness directive (AD), that is applicable to General Electric Company (GE) CF6-6, CF6- 45, and CF6-50 series turbofan engines, that currently requires revisions to the Time Limits Section of the manufacturer's Instructions for Continued Airworthiness (ICA) to include required inspection of selected critical life-limited parts at each piece-part exposure. This amendment modifies the airworthiness limitations section of the manufacturer's manual and an air carrier's approved continuous airworthiness maintenance program to incorporate additional inspection requirements. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) study of in- service events involving uncontained failures of critical rotating engine parts has indicated the need for mandatory inspections. The mandatory inspections are needed to identify those critical rotating parts with conditions, which if allowed to continue in service, could result in uncontained failures. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent critical life-limited rotating engine part failure, which could result in an uncontained engine failure and damage to the airplane.
Which aircraft AD 2002-05-03 applies to
Applies to CF6-6 engines regardless of prior modification, alteration, or repair; requires revising the manufacturer's ICA Time Limits Section (and, for air carriers, the approved continuous airworthiness maintenance program) to add mandatory piece-part-opportunity inspections (fluorescent-penetrant/eddy-current/magnetic-particle) of specific life-limited rotating parts such as the fan rotor disk, fan forward/mid shaft, and HPC rotor stage 1-2 disks.
Whether AD 2002-05-03 actually applies to your aircraft (by serial and installed parts) and whether it’s already complied with comes from that aircraft’s records.
How AD compliance is recorded
A valid compliance record (14 CFR 43.9) states:
Tailplate reads a tail number’s logbooks and matches every applicable AD — including this one — to its compliance evidence, with recurring next-due dates computed.
Look up a tail number →Read the full directive (Federal Register)Applicability is derived from the FAA directive corpus and is advisory, not a legal airworthiness determination. Compliance is established only from an aircraft’s actual records.