FAA Proposes Replacing Evacuation Slides on 1,998 US-Registered A320-Family Jets After Slides Failed to Inflate

The notice is a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) under Docket No. FAA-2026-11810, with the project identifier MCAI-2026-00201-T. It would add a new airworthiness directive to Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 39. The document was signed on October 9, 2026 and filed for publication on October 14.

In its summary, the FAA says the proposal "was prompted by reports of door evacuation slide systems failing to inflate during emergency evacuations." The reported reason is the fracture and separation of the connector on the inflation hose assembly. The FAA adds that the condition, if not addressed, could prevent the inflation of the escape slide and render one evacuation path unusable in an emergency evacuation, possibly resulting in injury to airplane occupants.

The proposed directive would do two things:

• Require the replacement of each affected slide with a serviceable slide.
• Prohibit the installation of affected parts.

The FAA states that it is proposing the rule because the unsafe condition is likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design.

Which aircraft are covered

The applicability is broad by model but narrow by part. The proposal applies to all Airbus A318-111, -112, -121 and -122 aircraft, a long list of A319, A320 and A321 variants, including the re-engined "neo" versions, and the A321 sub-series with the NX and NY suffixes. It covers aircraft certificated in any category.

Being on the list does not by itself mean an aircraft needs work. The directive turns on which slides are fitted at the affected doors. The European document that the FAA adopts divides aircraft into two groups. Group 1 aircraft carry an affected slide at one or more of four passenger-door positions, identified by functional item numbers 7500MM, 7501MM, 7502MM and 7503MM. Group 2 aircraft have no affected slide installed. An aircraft that has had every affected slide replaced becomes a Group 2 aircraft.

The FAA also removed one model from its own applicability. The European directive lists the A320-215, but the FAA notes that this model is not certificated by the FAA and does not appear on the US type certificate data sheet, so the proposal leaves it out.

How an affected slide is defined

The European directive defines affected parts at two levels, the hose and the slide.

An affected hose is an inflation hose assembly with part number 63667-101 or 63667-103 in any serial number, or part number 68906-101 with a serial number below 4407.

An affected slide is a door evacuation slide whose part number and serial number match an appendix to the directive. That appendix covers the forward-door slide (part numbers beginning D31516) and the aft-door slide (part numbers beginning D31517), each with several serial-number cut-offs. The forward-door entries are prior to serial numbers M11767, C1745, L25862 and A17696. The aft-door entries are prior to M11772, C1745, L25862 and A17609. A slide is also treated as affected if an inflation hose on it was replaced in service with an affected hose, including cases where no maintenance records show that no affected hose was fitted.

There is one carve-out. A slide that was inspected and re-marked under a Safran Aerosystems vendor service bulletin, and re-marked as modified or inspected per that bulletin, is excluded as long as no affected hose has been fitted again afterward. The directive also says operators may identify affected slides or hoses by reviewing maintenance records instead of physically inspecting them, provided those records can be relied on.

The European directive behind it

The FAA's proposal rests on EASA Airworthiness Directive 2026-0037R1, issued on May 4, 2026. That is the first revision of EASA AD 2026-0037, which was dated February 25, 2026 and took effect on March 11, 2026. The revision took effect on May 11, 2026.

EASA's published reason matches the FAA's text: reports of slide systems failing to inflate during emergency evacuations, with investigations showing that the failure was due to the fracture and separation of the connector on the inflation hose assembly. To address it, Airbus issued service bulletins A320-25-1CML and A320-25-1CMM on October 17, 2025, each referring to the Safran Aerosystems evacuation vendor service bulletin A320 004-25-130, whose original issue is dated February 22, 2024. The service bulletins give the instructions for replacing the affected slides.

According to the EASA document, the original directive was posted for consultation as a proposed directive on January 8, 2026, and the consultation ran until February 5, 2026. The revision was issued after the agency determined that some affected parts carry an RP suffix on their serial number, which does not change their status as affected parts, and after questions about how to determine affected parts and the rules on installing them. EASA added a note to the appendix and clarified the text. It did not change the underlying requirement.

Deadlines

EASA's compliance time is the operative one. For Group 1 aircraft, each affected slide must be replaced with a serviceable slide within 36 months after March 11, 2026, the effective date of the original European directive.

The FAA proposal changes the clock for US operators. Wherever the European directive refers to March 11, 2026, the FAA's directive would use its own effective date instead. The 36-month period would therefore start when the FAA's final rule takes effect, which has not yet happened. The FAA proposal does not state a calendar end date.

The ban on installing affected slides applies in two ways under the European text. On Group 1 aircraft, it applies after the replacement of each affected slide. Until then, the directive allows affected slides to be reinstalled at any position. On Group 2 aircraft, it applies from the effective date of the directive.

Cost estimate

The FAA estimates the directive would affect 1,998 airplanes on the US register. Its table of estimated costs for the required actions is as follows:

• Labor: 21 work-hours at $85 an hour, or $1,785 per aircraft.
• Parts: $2,172 per aircraft.
• Cost per product: $3,957.
• Total cost to US operators: $7,906,086.

The FAA's notice does not break out how many of the 1,998 aircraft actually carry affected slides. The proposal is certified as not a significant regulatory action under Executive Order 12866 and as not having a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

What the FAA changed from the European text

The FAA proposes to adopt EASA AD 2026-0037R1 in its entirety through incorporation by reference, with three stated exceptions. These are the exceptions set out in the proposal:

• The European start date of March 11, 2026 is replaced by the FAA directive's own effective date.
• The European definition of a serviceable slide, which ties eligibility to approved Airbus instructions, is reworded to refer to any door evacuation slide eligible for installation that is not an affected slide.
• The Remarks section of the European directive is not adopted.

The FAA also drops the requirement in the European material to submit certain information to the manufacturer. Its proposal says no reporting requirement applies.

The notice describes this as part of the agency's efforts to improve the efficiency of the directive process by using certain foreign civil aviation authority directives as the primary source of compliance information. The compliance material itself will be placed in the docket on regulations.gov after the FAA's final rule is published.

What happens next

An NPRM is a proposal, not an order. The FAA says it will consider every comment received by November 30, 2026 and may amend the proposal because of them. Comments can be filed through regulations.gov under Docket No. FAA-2026-11810, by fax to 202-493-2251, or by mail or hand delivery to the Department of Transportation's Docket Operations office in Washington. The FAA contact named for technical questions is aviation safety engineer Nicholas Benson at the agency's Des Moines, Washington office.

If the agency adopts a final rule, US operators with affected slides would then have to follow the European replacement schedule as adjusted by the FAA's start-date change. The EASA directive already applies to aircraft on European registers.

Sources

• Federal Register, "Airworthiness Directives; Airbus SAS Airplanes," FR Doc. 2026-21047, October 15, 2026 (via the Government Publishing Office)
• European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Airworthiness Directive 2026-0037R1, issued May 4, 2026