The FAA has filed an airworthiness directive prohibiting further flight of all Elixir Aircraft Model Elixir airplanes until approved corrective actions have been performed. Issued October 7 and filed for public inspection October 8, it is scheduled to publish October 13. The U.S. prohibition is not yet effective.
What triggered it
The directive follows a fatal accident during a production flight. FAA says the cause remains under investigation. It describes a European Union Aviation Safety Agency emergency directive dated October 2 that temporarily grounded the fleet as a precaution, and a manufacturer's alert service bulletin from the same day.
FAA says the unknown cause and potential consequences justify issuing the final rule without a prior comment period. It considers this an interim action and may pursue further rulemaking if a final remedy is identified. The document establishes neither a specific defect nor a date when affected aircraft can resume flying.
The U.S. requirement
From the effective date, further flight is prohibited until all applicable corrective actions have been performed using a method approved by the FAA's International Validation Branch manager. The directive applies to the model in every certification category.
Special flight permits are not allowed unless approved through the directive's alternative-method-of-compliance procedures. That provision matters because moving an aircraft by flying it is not an automatic exception to the prohibition.
FAA estimates three U.S.-registered airplanes are affected. It says no approved inspection or modification procedures were available when it prepared the rule, leaving it without definitive data to estimate corrective-action costs.
Dates and comments
The inspection PDF prints one day after publication for effectiveness and 45 days after publication for comments. The Register's record gives October 14 and November 27, 2026, respectively, for the scheduled October 13 issue. These are separate clocks: accepting comments does not defer the flight restriction.
Comments go to docket FAA-2026-11804 using the methods in the directive. FAA says it will consider timely comments and may amend the rule. It also warns that ordinary submissions, including personal information supplied in them, are posted without change; its confidential-business-information procedure is separate.