As of September 29, a pilot with a logbook endorsement to fly a Cessna Citation 500, 550, S550, 552 or 560 alone is expected to bring a second pilot. The FAA’s notice of policy change, published in the Federal Register the day before, ended a practice that began in 1984. Its authors cite a compliance review, falsified examiner records and an accident rate roughly double that of comparable single-pilot jets.
The notice was signed by Hugh J. Thomas, executive director of the agency’s Flight Standards Service.
Forty years of exemptions for jets built for two
These airplanes are transport category, Part 25 designs, “type certificated for operation by two pilots,” in the notice’s words. They also exceed 12,500 pounds, which under 14 CFR 91.531(a)(2) calls for a second in command. The relief came through exemptions. The notice’s history says the FAA issued the first CE-500 single-pilot exemption to Cessna Aircraft Company in 1984 under Exemption No. 4050, after finding no data that showed a degradation of safety between single and two-pilot operation.
The exemptions were held by training providers, not by individual pilots, and the notice says they were granted to providers working under parts 61, 141 and 142 of the federal aviation regulations, with the 2024 compliance review concentrating on the Part 61 holders. A pilot who completed training under a provider’s exemption received a logbook endorsement, and that endorsement is what authorized single-pilot flying of an airplane the regulations otherwise staff with two. The models covered are the 500 and 550, the S550, the Navy’s 552 designated T-47A, and the 560 family.
The 2024 compliance review and its tally
The agency says the review that led here began in 2024, when it learned that people who held no exemption were offering training under another entity’s exemption. The notice then lists what the review turned up: incomplete records, required flight training done in an advanced aviation training device contrary to the conditions and limitations, and improper checks by designated pilot examiners that included falsified records.
The consequence, in the notice’s numbers, was that 13 of the 14 Part 61 exemption holders were denied an extension or had their exemption rescinded, either for failing to respond to information requests or for non-compliance. The FAA also describes a structural flaw: the providers held relief that only the pilot flying would use, and they had no ongoing involvement with the operations where it applied, so pilots could keep flying alone without knowing an exemption had lapsed.
On accident rates, the notice says Part 25 CE-500 airplanes flown by a single pilot are involved in approximately twice the rate of accidents of Part 23 CE-500, 510 and 525 airplanes flown single-pilot.
Two accidents named in the notice
The FAA points to two crashes. The first, on May 22, 2025, is NTSB case WPR25FA161. The NTSB’s preliminary report covers a Citation S550 that struck power lines on approach to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego and crashed into a neighborhood, killing six aboard and injuring eight on the ground. The report notes that the pilot held an exemption to fly the airplane single-pilot, granted after a flight evaluation on December 15, 2024. The FAA notice says the pilot had received an improper check from a designated examiner who held an exemption.
The second was a December 18, 2025 accident near Statesville, North Carolina, NTSB case WPR26MA063, in which the notice says the pilot was operating without a qualified second in command on board, which is the situation the exemption regime was meant never to produce for a Part 25 jet flown outside its two-pilot design. The FAA describes that investigation as ongoing. AOPA’s report on the San Diego crash covered the approach below published minimums, and the NTSB’s investigation of the cause continues to run separately from the FAA’s policy decision.
Endorsements, transition and the separate rescissions
Pilots holding these endorsements must, the notice says, cease single-pilot operations in aircraft that require two pilots, and operate under the aircraft’s limitations and sections 91.9 and 91.531. A transition provision lets a pilot who completed a section 61.58 proficiency check during exemption compliance use it toward pilot-in-command requirements for two-pilot operation of the airplanes.
The notice itself announces the decision and tells current holders that their exemptions will be rescinded by separate action; it states the FAA is issuing those rescissions following publication. It does not list exemption numbers, so the individual rescission documents are where each holder’s end date would appear. The notice carries docket FAA-2026-12343. Of the 14 Part 61 holders the FAA reviewed, only one was not denied or rescinded as of the notice, and the document does not say which holder that was or whether its rescission is still pending.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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