Piper PA-44 Seminole

The Piper Seminole is the twin that many US pilots learn on, and its record is short and thin. Up to 28 October 2026 we count 8 fatal accidents on US flights since 2008 and 16 deaths, over about 1.8 million estimated flights. Per flight, that puts it near the top of the small planes we rate, behind the Cessna 172, and well ahead of the Beechcraft Baron. With so few events, confidence is low and the likely range is wide.

What is the Seminole?

Piper began building the PA-44-180 in 1979, and a turbocharged version followed. It is a four-seat, low-wing twin with retractable gear, a T-tail and counter-rotating propellers. About 1,100 have been built. The FAA register shows about 520 US aircraft in 2024, up from about 420 in 2014.

Most are owned by flight schools, which use them for multi-engine ratings and for commercial training. Private owners fly a few.

How we score a school twin

Small planes are scored on US fatal accidents since 2008 and on flights estimated from the FAA register and the FAA General Aviation survey. The survey gives flying hours for light twins as a class, and airframe hours in NTSB accident records and, to a lesser degree, ADS-B tracks from 2019 to 2022 split them between types: a school Seminole makes about twice as many flights as the average twin, and the count takes that into account. A flight runs from take-off to the final landing, so touch-and-goes in the circuit do not add flights. A flight in any small plane carries far more risk than an airline flight. See the method and the small planes ranking.

Five lessons, two private flights, one ferry

By type, loss of control in flight leads with three, then one each for fuel, flight into terrain, a mid-air collision, a systems failure and one with an unknown cause.

What an engine failure means in a light twin

A twin does not simply fly on if one engine stops. The working engine pushes the plane off line, and the rudder has to hold it straight. Below the minimum control speed, called Vmc, it cannot, and the plane rolls and yaws toward the dead engine. The pilot must feather the dead propeller, keep the speed up and climb at the single-engine best speed. The climb may be weak.

Training teaches this with a simulated failure at a safe height, normally by closing a throttle. The hard moments come near the ground. Three of the five training accidents involve a real or simulated engine problem. On 11 November 2010, less than a minute after a night take-off from West Palm Beach, the left engine stopped. The NTSB found the left fuel selector off, then poor engine-out handling: the crew turned back without feathering or raising the gear. All four died.

On 30 March 2024 a Seminole at Fort Pierce, Florida, went around from a simulated engine-out approach, but a worn throttle linkage missed at an inspection the day before left the right engine with only part power. One of two died. On 3 October 2023 a Seminole rolled inverted and spun during a Vmc demonstration near Newberg, Oregon; the student and instructor died. The NTSB cited loss of control and poor supervision.

Other risks in the data

Training areas are busy. On 6 December 2008 a Seminole and a Cessna 172R collided at about 2,000 ft in clear skies west of Fort Lauderdale. All four pilots died, and the NTSB found neither saw the other. Night and instrument flying also appear: on 24 March 2014 two private pilots in cloud lost the second of two vacuum pumps near Brunswick, Georgia, and both died.

How to choose a school and a lesson

• Ask which instructors have many hours in the Seminole and how they brief engine-out drills.
• Ask how the school inspects throttle linkages, fuel selectors and vacuum pumps.
• Expect Vmc demonstrations high above the ground, and simulated failures near the runway only with the instructor ready to restore power.
• As a passenger on a rented twin, ask for the pilot's multi-engine currency.
• Look up the aircraft registration in the FAA register and NTSB database.

Trackers show PA44. For a larger twin, see the Piper Seneca.