Airworthiness Directives; Fairchild Aircraft, Inc. SA226 and SA227 Series Airplanes

This amendment adopts a new airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain Fairchild Aircraft, Inc. (Fairchild) SA226 and SA227 series airplanes. This AD requires repetitively inspecting the wing spar center web cutout on both wings for cracks between Wing Station (WS) 8 and WS 17.5, and immediately repairing any area found cracked. This repair will eliminate the need for the repetitive inspections on that particular wing spar. This AD is the result of reports of cracks in the wing spar center web cutout caused by fatigue due to airplane maneuvering and wind gusts. The actions specified by this AD are intended to detect and correct fatigue cracking of the wing spar center web cutout area, which could result in structural failure of the wing spar to the point of failure with consequent loss of control of the airplane.