The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) expressed concern over the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) decision to rescind single-pilot exemptions for some Cessna Citation models in a letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
“While AOPA supports the Agency’s authority to take appropriate action as required by the FAA’s safety management system and its aviation safety mandate, AOPA recommends the agency pause its decision to rescind Citation Jet single pilot exemptions in an all or nothing manner,” wrote AOPA Vice President for Regulatory Affairs David Boulter. “It makes no sense to punish compliant and safe operators with this order.”
The exemptions allow some operators to fly the following Citation models with a single pilot, even though they were certified for two-pilot crews:
- Model 500—Citation and Citation I
- Model 550—Citation II and Bravo
- Model S550—Citation S/II
- Model 552—Navy T–47A
- Model 560—Citation V, Ultra, Encore, and Encore+
The rescission does not affect single-pilot operations of the Citation 501 and 551, or the CE-525, which includes the CJ1, M2, CJ2, CJ3, CJ3+, and CJ4, because those models were originally certified as single-pilot aircraft.
AOPA asked that the FAA “immediately halt the total denial of the single pilot exemption and only rescind the exemption for operators who fail to meet minimum standards set forth in the exemption,” and urged the agency to work with industry “to evaluate and formulate recommendations in order to move forward together to improve safety.”
“The goal of modern safety systems is to monitor operations and use the data collected to continuously improve safety,” Boulter wrote. “Any deficiencies in operations under this exemption should have been identified and corrected long before such drastic action, without industry collaboration, was taken.”