FAA Issues Airworthiness Directive for Some Boeing 777 Planes, Escape Slide Issue

FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued an Airworthiness Directive (AD) for certain models of Boeing’s 777 aircraft to fix an escape slide issue:

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 777 airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports that escape slides/rafts did not deploy due to galvanic corrosion of the door-mounted slide/raft packboard release mechanisms.

This AD requires doing a general visual inspection of the housing assembly of the packboard release mechanism to determine if its surface treatment has been sealed, and if the surface of the housing assembly is unsealed, replacing the housing assembly with a new or serviceable housing assembly. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct corrosion of the packboard release mechanisms, which could interfere with escape slide/raft deployment, prohibit doors from opening in the armed mode, and cause consequent delay and injury during evacuation of passengers and crew from the cabin in the event of an emergency.

This AD is effective May 3, 2013.

NOTE: The AD did not specify which models of the 777 are affected.