Airworthiness Directives; General Electric Company CF34-1A, -3A, -3A1, -3A2, -3B, and -3B1 Turbofan Engines

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD) for General Electric Company (GE) CF34-1A, -3A, -3A1, -3A2, -3B, and -3B1 turbofan engines. That AD currently requires a onetime visual and tactile inspection of certain areas of certain P/N and SN fan disks for an arc-out defect, within 20 engine flight hours after the effective date of that AD. This AD requires inspecting certain fan disks for electrical arc-out indications, removing from service fan disks with electrical arc-out indications, performing tactile and enhanced visual (TEV) inspections, fluorescent penetrant inspections (FPI), and eddy current inspections (ECI) on certain disks that have already had a shop-level inspection, and repetitive FPI and ECI on certain fan disks. This AD results from an updated risk analysis by GE that shows we need to take corrective action that is more stringent. We are issuing this AD to prevent an uncontained failure of the fan disk, which could result in damage to the airplane.