FAA Proposes Nose Gear Inspections for the Entire Airbus A320 Family

The FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive that would require special inspections of the nose landing gear on every Airbus A318, A319, A320 and A321 flying in the United States. The agency published the notice on August 13, 2026, after Airbus reported cracks turning up in the nose gear’s sliding tube during routine maintenance shop visits.

What inspectors found

The affected part is the nose landing gear sliding tube, part number 50-3752016-00, the telescoping strut that lets the gear leg extend and retract while absorbing the shock of every landing. According to the FAA’s proposed rule, the damage traces back to the chrome grinding step during manufacturing, which left overheat damage in the tube’s base metal.

That manufacturing flaw did not show up right away. Only after aircraft had been in service and gear components came off for shop visits did inspectors find the overheat spots had widened into multiple cracks across the tube. Left unaddressed, the FAA warns, the cracking could eventually cause the nose gear to fail.

What the proposed AD requires

The proposal, docketed as FAA-2026-8779, would require a special detailed inspection of the affected sliding tubes and replacement of any that show cracking. It would also bar airlines from installing the flawed part number on any Airbus A320 family jet going forward.

The US rule mirrors an existing EASA directive, AD 2025-0258, issued by Europe’s regulator against the same part number. The FAA is accepting public comments on its version through September 28, 2026, before it can become final.

The sliding tube carries enormous repeated stress. It houses the shock absorber piston and takes the full compression load of touchdown on every flight, so a growing crack there is treated as a structural safety issue rather than routine wear.

The A320 family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is the best-selling jet lineup in aviation history, with thousands in daily service worldwide. A defect tied to a single manufacturing process at Airbus’s supplier could eventually touch a large slice of that fleet, though the FAA has not yet published a count of how many US-registered aircraft carry the affected part.

It is the second Airbus-related proposed AD the FAA has published this week, following a separate proposal on Boeing 787 tail bolts. Landing gear has drawn more regulatory scrutiny than usual this year, including the FAA’s emergency rudder-control directive for the Diamond DA42 after a fatal crash traced to a cracked gear actuator rod.