FAA Demands GE Engine Fixes to Zap Tiny Iron Troublemakers
Published Date: 1/2/2026
Rule
Summary
If you fly planes with certain General Electric GE90 engines, listen up! The FAA found some turbine parts might have tiny iron bits that could cause trouble, so they’re requiring those parts to be swapped out by February 6, 2026. This keeps flights safe but means some maintenance and costs for operators.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 2 costs, 0 mixed.
Mandatory turbine-disk replacements
If you operate airplanes with GE Model GE90-90B, GE90-94B, GE90-110B1, or GE90-115B engines that have the listed HPT stage 1 or stage 2 disks, you must remove and replace those disks by February 6, 2026 or per the AD timelines. Disks listed in table 1 to paragraph (c) must be replaced before further flight; other listed disks must be replaced at the next piece-part exposure or before exceeding 4,650 cycles since new (CSN) for HPT stage 1 or 11,300 CSN for HPT stage 2, whichever occurs first. For HPT stage 1 disks that have more than 4,650 CSN on the effective date, replacement may be deferred up to 50 flight cycles after February 6, 2026.
FAA estimated compliance costs
The FAA estimates this AD affects two engines on U.S. registry and gives specific cost estimates: replacing an HPT stage 1 disk is estimated at 8 work-hours (at $85/hour) plus parts for a total of $932,816 per product, and replacing an HPT stage 2 disk is estimated at 8 work-hours plus parts for a total of $187,086 per product. The FAA's U.S. operators' cost (sum of those two estimated product costs) is $1,119,902.
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