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42 Bombardier jets face a mandatory seat-frame fix
The FAA says operators of certain Bombardier BD-700 business jets must fix seat-frame joints that may have been built without Loctite. It puts the U.S. fleet cost at up to $127,008, before any warranty help.
The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering a seat-frame modification on certain Bombardier, Inc. BD-700-1A10, BD-700-1A11 and BD-700-2A12 airplanes. The agency says some seat frames were assembled without Loctite, the thread-locking compound used to keep fasteners from loosening, on non-locking fastener joints.
Submit comments: regulations.gov Effective date: July 20, 2026
The rule takes effect July 20, 2026, and the FAA estimates it affects 42 airplanes on the U.S. registry. For operators, that means a required maintenance stop and a bill the agency puts at as much as 34 labor hours and up to $3,024 per airplane before any warranty offset.
Inside the seat frame
This is the kind of problem passengers never see until a regulator turns it into a mandatory repair. The missing compound leaves a weak point inside the seat frame assembly, and the FAA says the directive is meant to address that unsafe condition before it becomes a larger failure in service.
For maintenance crews, the fix is specific rather than broad. The rule does not rewrite the whole airplane, only the non-locking fastener joints in the seat frame assembly that need to be modified to meet the agency’s standard.
Agency: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT Docket ID: FAA-2026-2279 RIN: 2120-AA64 CFR parts: 14 CFR Part 39 Effective date: July 20, 2026 Submit comments: regulations.gov Contact: Amanda F. Pieraccini • Aviation Safety Engineer • 516-228-7300 • 9-avs-nyaco-cos@faa.gov • 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590