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The FAA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) on Monday for Embraer Legacy 450, 500, Praetor 500 and 600 business jets.Embraer produced the Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 roughly between 2014 and 2019, with formal deliveries beginning in late 2014 for the 500 and 2015 for the 450. Following their announcement in 2008, these jets served as the basis for the improved Praetor 500 and 600, which were introduced in October 2018 to replace them in the product line, offering increased range and fuel capacity.
Brazil's Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC) originally issued an AD warning about the issue on Monday and the FAA restated it. According to both agencies, there have been reports of failures on one load path of the Pitch Trim Actuator (PTA) of the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer (HS) that are being discovered during maintenance. This defect increases the risk of one or both load paths failing, which may cause the horizontal stabilizer to move and result in a loss of aircraft control.
Operators are required to take immediate corrective action. Any aircraft of the same type will need an operational check (OPC) and pitch trim verification. If it fails the OPC, the PTA will need to be replaced and another operational check performed before further flight. The FAA clarifies that the aircraft has failed the test if the status field is filled in as test failed or as test aborted. The failure should be reported to the applicable maintenance service.
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If the OPC or pitch trim verification was done on or after the date of the applicable AD, operators must submit the report within 10 days after accomplishing the operational check or pitch trim verification. If they are completed before the AD's date, a report must submitted within 10 days of it being issued.