Airworthiness Directives; Short Brothers & Harland Ltd. Models SC-7 Series 2 and SC-7 Series 3 Airplanes

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) to revise AD 2003-17-05, which applies to Short Brothers & Harland (Shorts) Models SC-7 Series 2 and SC-7 Series 3 airplanes. AD 2003-17-05 currently establishes a technical service life for these airplanes and allows you to incorporate modifications, inspections, and replacements of certain life limited items to extend the life limits of these airplanes. Since we issued AD 2003-17-05, Shorts Service Bulletin SB 51-51 was revised to Revision 8, dated July 5, 2006, and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Community, issued an AD for the European Community to correct an unsafe condition for the specified product. AD 2003-17-05 contains conflicting information on the repetitive visual inspection requirement. Consequently, this AD would retain the technical service life for these airplanes; would continue to allow modifications, inspections, and replacements of certain life limited items to extend the life limits of these airplanes; and would clarify the repetitive visual inspection requirement between one of the service bulletins and the maintenance program if an operator chooses to extend the life limit. The actions specified by this AD are intended to clarify the inspection information to prevent failure of critical structure of the aircraft caused by fatigue.