A small aircraft appeared to have struck the tallest building in Beijing on Friday afternoon, in a shocking incident in the Chinese capital. There is no report on casualties so far.
According to a CNN report, people evacuated from the skyscraper gathered on the streets near the entrance, along with firetrucks, police cars, and an ambulance.
Dramatic footage posted on social media showed debris falling from the 109-story CITIC Tower, also known as China Zun, along with a tail section of the plane and a broken taxi window on the ground.
The building is a 108-story skyscraper in east Beijing. It is the headquarters of the state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group and the tallest building in the Chinese capital. Two glass panels on a high floor were damaged. There was no immediate official comment.
There is a heavy police presence at the site, with some roads leading up to the building closed to cars. Police officers were spotted stopping people from taking pictures and ushering people away from the building, Reuters reported.
According to CNN, the plane’s registration code appeared to indicate a domestically manufactured light sport aircraft, a Sunward SA 60L Aurora, owned by a local general aviation company.
{{/usCountry}}According to CNN, the plane’s registration code appeared to indicate a domestically manufactured light sport aircraft, a Sunward SA 60L Aurora, owned by a local general aviation company.
{{/usCountry}}Unverified flight data from Flightradar24 posted online appeared to show a severely deviated flight path for the aircraft.
What eyewitnesses say
A courier told Reuters that he had rushed over to CITIC Tower around 6 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) from a nearby location after hearing a loud crash as an aircraft about the size of a car hit the building.
"It was so loud – louder than fireworks," he said.
He said he had shot a video of the aircraft protruding from the building, but later deleted it because he was afraid of getting caught by the police.
Another eyewitness said that he had come to the scene after seeing unverified social media images showing wreckage of a small aircraft on a road next to the building.
Social media posts about the building on Friday were quickly removed from Chinese platforms. A search of the building's name on the Xiaohongshu app returned only posts dated Thursday.
Flying any light sport aircraft in Beijing requires stringent approval from both the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the People's Liberation Army Air Force.
Last month, Beijing enacted sweeping regulations on its airspace, effectively banning casual recreational flying and consumer drones. All outdoor flights require prior government and air traffic approval.