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SafetyScorer

Cessna (Textron Aviation) · Business jet

Cessna Citation Sovereign

Is the Cessna Citation Sovereign safe? It is not ranked yet: with no fatal accidents counted in about 1.4 million flights since 2008, its record is too short to place it among the others: its score could be anywhere from 49 to 100.

Low confidenceIn serviceUpdated 5 November 2026
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Cessna Citation Sovereign safety score: 84 out of 100, grade B (Good)

Likely range 49 to 100

1 in 5.8 millionchance of dying on a flight0.17 deaths per million boardings

How the score is built

Fatal accidents
0 in 1.4 million flights

No fatal accident in the data (ASN database to 3 November 2026).

Full-loss equivalents
0

Each counted accident adds the share of people on board who died (1 = no survivors). This is what the score is based on.

Flights flown
1.4 million

Estimated flights of all kinds. Flights of all kinds (private, charter, corporate, cargo, training and other civil use) 2008 to 3 November 2026: OpenSky 2022 flights of the type under any call sign (US military aircraft left out), re-weighted to World Bank departures country by country, carried to other years by the type's flights counted each year by FAA traffic flow management (TFMSC). Flights before 2008 are not used, like the accidents. About 210 flights per aircraft per year (fleet with a median service life of about 27 years). Uncertainty roughly ±30%.

Technology generation
Modern business jet (type first flew from 1990)

Small fleets are pulled toward the record of the other types of their generation: 0.86 full-loss equivalents per million flights over 29.3 million flights. Weight of this family's own record: 80%.

Likely range
49 to 100

The score is 90% likely to lie in this range, given how few accidents a type has and the error in the estimate of its flights.

Last fatal accident
None

No counted fatal accident.

Hull losses
1

Civil aircraft destroyed or written off from all causes, including non-fatal accidents, cargo flights and attacks; airframes flown by air forces on military operations are left out. ASN gives no fate for some damaged aircraft, so this can be a little low (context only, not in the score).

Compared with everyday risks

One flight on the Cessna Citation Sovereign carries about the same risk of death as the activities near it below.

  • An hour's walk1 in 14 million
  • Driving 100 miles (160 km)1 in 5.9 million
  • One flight on the Cessna Citation SovereignThis aircraft1 in 5.8 million
  • An ordinary day: accidents and violence1 in 1 million
  • A day of skiing1 in 830,000
  • A scuba dive1 in 500,000
  • Cycling 100 miles (160 km)1 in 430,000
  • Running a marathon1 in 290,000
  • A skydive1 in 250,000
  • A general anaesthetic1 in 100,000
  • Riding a motorbike 100 miles (160 km)1 in 83,000
Chance of dying from each activity, on a log scale (longer bar = riskier). Activity figures are approximate and come from our activity pages; the ordinary day and the anaesthetic come from The Norm Chronicles (Blastland and Spiegelhalter, 2013).

Accident history

No fatal accident counts toward this score.

The Citation Sovereign has no fatal event in our data. It is a good fact, but it rests on a modest number of flights. From 2008, the period the score covers, to 3 November 2026 we estimate about 1.4 million. Confidence is therefore low, and under the methodology the Sovereign is not ranked yet: its likely score range is very wide.

What is the Citation Sovereign?

It is a large midsize business jet from Textron Aviation. It first flew in 2002 and entered service in 2004. About 450 were built and production has ended. Flight tracking saw about 450 aircraft under this type code in 2022, so read both as estimates: nearly all were still flying then. It seats about nine. It is larger than the Citation Excel and close in size to the Citation Latitude. The Sovereign+ is the later version.

Corporate flight departments, fractional programs and charter fleets fly it. Its range suits coast-to-coast trips in the United States. It has a swept wing and a T-tail, and the type needs two pilots.

What does the non-fatal record show?

With no fatal event, the safety record sits in the non-fatal cases. ASN lists seven for the type. None killed anyone on board. A few show what can go wrong:

  • 18 August 2024, BJR Management, Washington, North Carolina. The jet landed with the gear up after a visual approach and caught fire. Both pilots got out. It is the one Hull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary. The NTSB found the crew had not configured the jet for landing and the captain had not recognised the gear warning; weak checklist use and a cockpit audio system with known faults contributed.
  • 21 July 2022, Anderson Air, Kotzebue, Alaska. On a charter flight, the jet hit standing water on landing and damaged a flap. A notice about the water had been cancelled the day before. Nine people were aboard and none was hurt.
  • 31 August 2018, Boydak Air, Bourgas, Bulgaria. The jet left the runway during rollout. The Bulgarian investigators named a probable nosewheel steering fault, followed by crew errors during the rollout.
  • 13 February 2010, Citationshares, Eagle, Colorado. After levelling off at 18,000 ft, the jet met extreme mountain wave turbulence, lost control briefly and was overstressed. It landed safely.

Most of the seven happened on the ground or at landing: two gear-up landings (the other in Argentina in 2019), a Runway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary, the standing water, a collision with a service vehicle and a passenger who slipped on the airstair.

How good is the evidence?

Zero events in about 1.4 million flights is not proof of a low rate. If the Sovereign were exactly as risky as the average modern business jet, a fleet of its size could well show no fatal event. The flight estimate has an error of about 30%. It does show that the Sovereign has not shared the fatal loss-of-control and high-altitude events found in the older Citation V family, but a few events would change the score.

How do I check a charter operator?

  1. Ask for the air operator certificate (in the United States, Part 135) and check it with the authority.
  2. Ask for a recent third-party audit, such as ARGUS or Wyvern.
  3. Confirm that both pilots are trained on the type. The Sovereign is flown by two pilots.
  4. Ask how the crew checks runway conditions at the destination.

How do I tell if I am on one?

Flight trackers show the ICAO code C680 for the Sovereign and the Sovereign+. The Sovereign+ has winglets.

Questions people ask

Has a Cessna Citation Sovereign ever had a fatal crash?

Not in our data. Up to 3 November 2026 there is no fatal event for the Sovereign or Sovereign+, in about 1.4 million estimated flights since 2008. That is a short record, so the type is not ranked yet, and one future event would change the picture a lot.

Is the Citation Sovereign safer than other midsize jets?

It has had no fatal event, while the older Citation V line has four counted since 2008. But with about 1.4 million flights since 2008 the Sovereign is not ranked yet, and its likely score range is wide enough to overlap the Citation V's, so the data cannot tell the two apart yet.

Is the Citation Sovereign used for charter?

Yes. Fractional ownership and charter fleets fly it, and ASN lists charter and corporate incidents. Ask any operator for its air operator certificate and a recent third-party audit.

What is the difference between the Sovereign and the Sovereign+?

The Sovereign+ is the later production version, certified in 2013, with Garmin G5000 avionics and winglets. Both share the ICAO code C680, so flight trackers show them the same.

Sources

  1. 1.ASN record: BJR Management Citation Sovereign, Washington-Warren, North Carolina, 18 August 2024 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
  2. 2.ASN record: Anderson Air Citation Sovereign, Kotzebue, Alaska, 21 July 2022 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
  3. 3.ASN record: Boydak Air Citation Sovereign, Bourgas, Bulgaria, 31 August 2018 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
  4. 4.ASN record: Citationshares Management Citation Sovereign, Eagle, Colorado, 13 February 2010 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
  5. 5.SafetyScorer exposure model: OpenSky Network flights 2022 (all operators), World Bank departures, FAA TFMSC (opens in a new tab)Flights of all kinds (private, charter, corporate, cargo, training and other civil use) 2008 to 3 November 2026: OpenSky 2022 flights of the type under any call sign (US military aircraft left out), re-weighted to World Bank departures country by country, carried to other years by the type's flights counted each year by FAA traffic flow management (TFMSC). Flights before 2008 are not used, like the accidents. About 210 flights per aircraft per year (fleet with a median service life of about 27 years). Uncertainty roughly ±30%.
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