AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE

For the reasons set out in the background section, the CASA delegate whose signature appears below issues the following Airworthiness Directive (AD) under subregulation 39.1 (1) of CASR 1998. The AD requires that the action set out in the requirement section (being action that the delegate considers necessary to correct the unsafe condition) be taken in relation to the aircraft or aeronautical product mentioned in the applicability section: (a) in the circumstances mentioned in the requirement section; and (b) in accordance with the instructions set out in the requirement section; and (c) at the time mentioned in the compliance section.

Fokker F100 (F28 Mk 100) Series Aeroplanes

AD/F100/60 Grimes Aerospace Passenger Service Unit 4/2004

Applicability: Model F.28 Mk.0100, all serial numbers (S/N), with Grimes Aerospace Passenger Service Unit (PSU) Part Number (P/N) 10-1178-(series) or P/N 10-1571-(series) installed.

Requirement: 1. Modify PSU P/N 10-1178-(series) and P/N 10-1571-(series) in accordance with Grimes Aerospace Company Service Bulletin (SB) 10-1178-33-0040 Revision 1 dated 25 march 1996 or SB 10-1571-33-0041 dated 15 October 1993, as applicable.

2. Clean and seal the PSU panel/interface connector in accordance with Part 2 of the Accomplishment Instructions of Fokker Services SB F100-25-097 dated 30 December 2003.

Note: CAA(NL) BLA 2004-022 (A) refers.

Compliance: For Requirements 1 and 2 - Within three years after the effective date of this Directive.

This Airworthiness Directive becomes effective on 15 April 2004.

Background: Over the years operators have reported incidents of smoke in the aft passenger compartment during flight, apparently due to overheating of a PSU. Investigation has shown the overheating to occur due to water leakage onto the PSU electrical connector.

To address this problem, Fokker Aircraft issued a SB which recommended a one-time inspection of the PSU panels and, if leakage was detected, the cleaning of the connector and modification of the PSU panel. As the smoke problems appeared to be minor and were not considered hazardous at the time, the inspection and modification were not made mandatory. As a result, only few operators accomplished the inspection/modification on affected PSU panels.

Fokker F100 (F28 Mk 100) Series Aeroplanes

AD/F100/60 (continued)

However, a recent incident involving smoke in the passenger cabin has been reported, indicating that the unsafe condition still exists or may develop on other aircraft.

Therefore, this Directive requires the sealing and modification of all PSU panels.

James Coyne

Delegate of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority 4 March 2004

The above AD is notified in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 24 March 2004.