The FAA will end single-pilot exemptions on roughly 1,250 US-registered older Cessna Citations, effective September 28, 2026, when the terminating notice publishes in the Federal Register.

The action targets Citation, Citation I, Citation II, S/II, V, Ultra, Bravo, Encore and Encore+ airframes, plus the military T-47A variant. Single-pilot operations on the Citation Mustang, the CJ family, and Part 23-certified Citation 501 and 551 variants configured per their approved flight manuals remain unchanged.

What prompted the FAA's action?

The agency tied the move to a review of 14 Part 61 exemption holders. Thirteen lost their authorizations or were denied extensions for noncompliance or failure to provide requested information, the FAA said.

Investigators identified incomplete records, unauthorized training-device use and improper proficiency checks, the FAA added. The agency terminated the designations of examiners it said were involved in falsification.

The FAA has allowed single-pilot Citation operations under exemption for more than 40 years. The move is the first wholesale pullback of single-pilot authority across the older Citation line and ends a privilege long available to owner-pilots, charter operators and small corporate flight departments.

What does the safety record show?

An 18-year FAA review found the accident rate for Part 25 CE-500 jets flown single-pilot ran roughly double that of Part 23 CE-500, CE-510 and CE-525 types operated under the same rules.

The agency also cited two fatal accidents involving pilots who lacked valid single-pilot authorization. Together those crashes killed 13 people and injured eight on the ground. Both investigations remain open, with probable causes undetermined.

The rulemaking references the December 18, 2025 Citation 550 crash in Statesville, North Carolina. The accident killed former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, his wife, their two children and three others; the FAA said the aircraft operated without a qualified second-in-command. No probable cause has been released.

What changes for affected pilots?

Pilots flying under the affected exemptions lose single-pilot privileges on the publication date and must operate with a qualified second-in-command. Those who completed a qualifying proficiency check under the exemption may still use it to satisfy pilot-in-command requirements for two-pilot operations, the FAA said.

The agency will rescind remaining training-provider exemptions through separate actions after the Federal Register notice appears. That secondary phase will close the last formal pathways to single-pilot authority on the affected airframes.

The rule does not strip single-pilot authority from the Part 23 CE-510 Mustang and CE-525 CJ family, preserving the lighter Part 23 fleet while ending the privilege on the older Part 25 CE-500 series and its derivatives.

What is the operational impact?

The affected Cessna CE-500 series and related Citation variants anchor owner-flown and small-corporate operations, where single-pilot economics shape the aircraft's value proposition. Registry data put the affected US fleet at roughly 1,250 airframes.

A second-in-command requirement raises crew cost on every affected flight and reshapes single-pilot charter availability, fleet utilization and insurance underwriting for the older Citations. Operators face a tight window to adjust rosters, minimum equipment lists, dispatch procedures and training pipelines ahead of the September effective date, with no exemption pathway visible once the rule and follow-on rescissions take effect.

The next signal arrives when the Federal Register notice publishes, locking the September 28, 2026 effective date and triggering separate rescissions of training-provider exemptions that will close the remaining routes to single-pilot authority on the covered airframes.