Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 767-200, -300, and -400ER series airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by an evaluation by the design approval holder (DAH) indicating that the skin lap splice is subject to widespread fatigue damage (WFD). This proposed AD would require repetitive external detailed and surface high frequency eddy current (HFEC) inspections of the outer skin for cracking around fastener heads common to the inboard fastener row of the skin lap splice. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct fatigue cracking of the skin lap splice, which, if not detected, could grow and result in possible rapid decompression and reduced structural integrity of the airplane.