Airworthiness Directives; Pratt & Whitney PW4000 Series Turbofan Engines

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD requires a one-time visual inspection of the No. 3 bearing oil pressure tube, part number (P/N) 51J041-01, P/N 50J604-01, or P/N 50J924-01. Tubes that are found cracked or repaired must be removed from service. This AD also prohibits repaired tubes from being installed. This AD results from one report of a repaired No. 3 bearing oil tube that caused an engine in-flight shutdown, seven reports of repaired No. 3 bearing oil pressure tubes found cracked that led to unscheduled engine removals, and one report of a test cell event from a repaired tube that cracked. We are issuing this AD to prevent cracking of No. 3 bearing oil pressure tubes, which could result in internal oil fire, failure of the high-pressure turbine (HPT) disks, uncontained engine failure, and damage to the airplane.