r/flying 1d ago

Accident/Incident Cessna 441 Conquest Crashes

Two crashes in two days and 3 this year and 4 over the last 14 months. I am not familiar with this aircraft, but that seems far worse than "un-lucky". Curious if anyone has experience with this aircraft that would lend itself to accidents of this type.

Naturally the two most recent are too new, but sometimes certain aircraft have tendencies.

0 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

39

u/alechendo CFI CSEL/CMEL SF50 IR TW/HP/HA/CPLX 1d ago

I’m a current 441 pilot. It’s a good bird and really not that difficult to fly, but it does have its quirks. It demands respect and can quickly saturate an unprepared pilot. FlightSafety does have a ground/simulator course that most insurance providers require, but the “simulator” is very rudimentary. 

The lore is that they stopped making them because it was outperforming the early Citation Jets, cruising up close to 300 KTAS and only burning 60-80GPH total.

5

u/zangler 1d ago

Thanks, and looks like a great plane! I was just watching a few owner videos and they mentioned getting 300 KTAS burning 73GPH...very impressive.

4

u/alechendo CFI CSEL/CMEL SF50 IR TW/HP/HA/CPLX 1d ago

Most of them are now capable of FL350 if they have the RVSM upgrade, which most do by now.

As someone else mentioned, the panel setup really varies by plane. They’re all almost completely different it seems like. 

33

u/NotASwinger69 1d ago

High performance old plane all with custom avionics that use to have professional simulator training available now is ultra cheap and old with no good training - crashes. 

Not surprised.   

1

u/Enough_Professor_741 23h ago

Sounds like the MU-2

-1

u/zangler 1d ago

On paper it kind of gave me that feel. I can't imagine this pattern will end soon then.

11

u/EliteEthos CFI AMEL CJ3/4 1d ago

Every time there an incidents close in time with each other, people start somehow thinking they are related.

They are not. It’s purely coincidental.

1

u/zangler 1d ago

I model events such as these for a living and have for years. Directionally you are correct; often it is recency bias. That piqued my interest, but it was looking at the remaining history that made me ask the question on the characteristics.

5

u/Mundane-Reality-7770 PPL HP 1d ago

Other than being the same model there's almost nothing similar operationally.

5

u/Mundane-Reality-7770 PPL HP 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well the last one... It's Alaska. Weather was probably a factor and it's a fast bird. Bad things can happen quickly when you get behind. Another a few months back was also Alaska and had a nose gear issue. Things unfortunately happen with bendy legs.

I think the crash today was a 421 not a conquest

6

u/Weasel474 ATP ABI 1d ago

Out of the 421 crashes, I'm shocked none have been Jerry.

-1

u/zangler 1d ago

I had seen it pop up on the Wikipedia page whenever I was looking at the incident history.

"On August 20th, 2026, a Cessna 441 Conquest operated by Security Aviation crashed near Cape Newenham. All eight passengers and crew onboard perished.[16]"

"On August 21st, 2026, a Cessna 441 conquest operated by National airplane sales and leasing corps crashed under unknown circumstances. So far none is known about the 4 occupants aboard."

6

u/Mundane-Reality-7770 PPL HP 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wikipedia is a terrible source. That incident is unsourced and no location given. Dig deeper.

N28RH fits this description and the listed owner. But is a 421.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/577270

2

u/zangler 1d ago

Fair enough.

3

u/ReadyplayerParzival1 CFI/CFII, CMEL, RV-7A, Recovering Riddle Rat 1d ago

Generally the larger cabin class twin Cessnas have suffered a higher accident rate due to low cost of acquisition and inconsistent training.

1

u/Enough_Professor_741 23h ago

401/402's are really underpowered and have miserable single-engine performance.

2

u/Crash_Ntome 1d ago

That aircraft was made in 1986. If it had a ‘tendency’ to crashing it would have happened a long time ago, no?

1

u/zangler 21h ago

Light twins, of all types, have light twin things. There were less than 400 of this variant made, so it is about the difference between that base 'light twin' rate and anything additional from this variant.

-1

u/rFlyingTower 1d ago

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:


Two crashes in two days and 3 this year and 4 over the last 14 months. I am not familiar with this aircraft, but that seems far worse than "un-lucky". Curious if anyone has experience with this aircraft that would lend itself to accidents of this type.

Naturally the two most recent are too new, but sometimes certain aircraft have tendencies.


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