Originally Posted by
lomapaseo
However both the manufacturer and the FAA have processes developed under continued airworthiness rules to assess in-service experience coupled with today's analysis. Such experience includes probable causes and population at risk, (of a blade fracture) certification basis, and any unexpected in-service additional safety concerns beyond a safe engine shutdown.
Loma, not disagreeing with anything you wrote, but it's also true that the FAA has established flow times - and those flow times would not have allowed an AD to languish for anywhere near 8 months and not be released (an FAA spokesperson has basically admitted as much).
Think of it this way - the risk assessment said they could allow 12 months to do the inspections without a significant safety threat - but they'd already used up over half of that and still hadn't mandated the inspections. So the safety assessment would have to be for at least 20 months which would most likely change the answer.
Knowing and having worked with the FAA for 2/3rds of my career, I'd bet pretty good money the AD's been sitting in someone's in-basket - forgotten - for several months. I'd bet even more money that the responsible person or persons will get nothing worse than a wrist slap.