Small aircraft crashes into CITIC Tower
Beijing: A small plane crashed into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper on Friday, puncturing the building’s glass panels and sending debris onto the street below.
Authorities have not yet commented on the accident, which occurred at around 18:00 local time (20:00 AEST) at the 108-storey CITIC Tower in Beijing’s central business district.
It is not yet known whether there are dead people on the plane, how many people were injured, and how many people were on board.
The skyscraper, known as CITIC Tower or China Zun, is the headquarters of Citic Group, one of China’s largest state-owned financial groups.
Video footage published on social media shows damage to the upper floors of the 528-meter building, where the plane crashed into glass panels and shattered them, and the debris curled towards the street below. The footage shows the wreckage of the plane’s tail lying on the street.
In the photographs, it can be seen that the aircraft’s registration code is B-12PP. According to Flightradar24 records, the aircraft was a two-seat Sunward SA 60L Aurora light aircraft operated by a local general aviation company.
Reuters reported that there was a heavy police presence in the area and authorities prevented people from taking photos and asked others to delete the images. The videos and images have since been deleted from Chinese social media by government censors.
A courier told the news agency that he heard a loud crash around 6pm and ran towards the building. He said he took a video of the plane flying out of the building but later deleted it for fear of being reprimanded by authorities.
“It was so loud, even louder than fireworks,” he told Reuters.
Last month, Beijing authorities tightened controls over the city’s airspace and banned the buying, selling or flying of drones without government approval.
Take notes directly from our foreign country reporters about things that make headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What’s on in the World Newsletter.
Lisa Visentin is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Beijing. He was previously a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
