The presence of a light aircraft in that area of Beijing, where air traffic is tightly controlled, increased the strangeness of the incident.
A small aircraft appears to have hit the tallest building in the Chinese capital on Friday afternoon. The incident, in one of the most watched cities in the world, is shocking, says .
Dramatic images captured in Beijing and published on social media showed debris falling from the CITIC Toweralso known as China Zun, a 109-story skyscraper. Other images showed a section of the plane’s tail and the broken window of a taxi on the ground.
A CNN journalist saw people evacuated from skyscraper gathered in the streets near the building’s entrance, as well as fire engines, police cars and an ambulance.
Images posted online that showed the plane’s registration code appeared to point to a Sunward SA 60L Auroraa Chinese-made light sport aircraft owned by a local aviation company that provides services such as pilot training, private recreational flying and aerial photography.
A single-engine Sunward SA-60L Aurora aircraft with registration B-12PP, flown by a lone pilot struck the CITIC tower in Beijing, reportedly around the mid-levels, around 65th floor area today.
The aircraft was completely damaged on impact, also made a visible hole in the glass…
— FL360aero (@fl360aero)
Unverified flight data from Flightradar24in the X, seem to indicate that the aircraft deviated sharply from the predicted route after taking off from Shifosi Airport in Beijing.
Since May 1st, the Chinese capital is, in practice, without dronesunder new safety rules, which prohibit residents from purchasingrent or operate drones without Government approval within the city’s vast administrative area.
Therefore, even the simple unusual presence of an aircraft in that area made the incident alarming for a resident, Annawho spoke to CNN near the scene.
“I heard about many policies, rules and laws about not using any aircraft in Beijing,” he said. “So this scares mebecause this is the central business area. How did they allow a flight to stay in the air for 20 minutes before arriving in this area?”
“We all managed to see that it was barely a very, very small planeand it was also after hours, so I probably don’t think there will be huge consequences, but It’s still scary“, said Anna.
A local resident, surnamed Wang, told what, just before 6 p.m., heard loud noises coming from the street and headed towards the tower, which had a hole on one of the side facades — where a fire briefly broke out. At the base of the building, also on fire, Wang saw the wreckage of a small plane.
The iconic tower was completed in 2018 and can be seen from across the city. It’s across from another famous Beijing architectural landmark, the China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, where nearly 20 police cars were parked on Friday night, the New York newspaper notes.
According to the NYT, posts on social media about the accident or that mention the building itself seemed be censored that China.
