On Friday afternoon a small plane appeared to evade some of the world’s strictest aviation controls and slam into the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, the 109-story CITIC Tower that dominates the city’s skyline, killing the pilot and injuring 13 other people.
The crash sent shards of glass and aircraft debris plummeting hundreds of feet down to the streets below as office workers left for the weekend, causing panic in the heart of China’s most protected city.
A short while later, it was like nothing had happened.
All references to the incident – and the shocking footage of it – had been scrubbed from Chinese social media. The government initially did not publicly acknowledge any incident had taken place. State media – including the country’s national broadcaster CCTV, headquartered across the road from the crash site – made no mention of the incident.
That’s thanks to the work of China’s army of censors and the Communist authorities’ obsessive control over information – particularly concerning events they believe may bring negative attention or consequences
The information vacuum left a host of unanswered questions for those who witnessed the event, or saw reports of it. For almost a day it was unknown how many people were injured in the incident.
On Saturday afternoon local time, media affiliated with the Beijing government reported a “single-engine double-seat light sports aircraft collided with a high-rise building in flight,” and that the pilot – the only person on board – had been killed and 13 people injured at the scene. The incident was being “investigated,” it said.
It’s still unknown whether the crash was accidental or intentional.
Perhaps most worryingly for authorities, it’s also raised questions of how the pilot managed to fly over China’s fortified capital, where most of the Communist Party elite live, and where even flying drones is effectively banned.
Plane crashes into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper
The CITIC tower, is 528-meters tall (equivalent to 1,732 feet). It has been Beijing’s tallest building since 2018 and dominates the skyline.
It hosts China’s state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group and tech giant Alibaba and the surrounding neighborhood is a prime location in Beijing, and frequented by foreigners and diplomats. The embassies of countries ranging from the UK to Vietnam are just steps away, as are big names in global finance including the World Bank and IFC’s China offices.
The crash happened on Friday late afternoon during rush hour. Footage shared online in the brief window before the censors swung into action showed a small plane crashing into the upper level of the building, also known as China Zun, sending debris and a tail section of the plane showering down onto the city.
Online images showing the plane’s registration code seemed to point to a domestically manufactured light sport aircraft, a Sunward SA 60L Aurora, owned by a local general aviation company, which offers services like pilot training, personal recreational flights and aerial photography.
CNN saw crowds evacuating from the skyscraper gathering on the streets near the entrance, along with firetrucks, police cars and an ambulance.
Beijing resident Anna, who wanted only her first name used, said she went to the site after hearing about the crash online.
“I was just like two stops away… and I saw this post… but it gets deleted soon. So I just came here.”
The footage has since gone viral on social media outside mainland China.
Inside the country, a search for “plane crash in Beijing” on Weibo, China’s version of X, produced no relevant results.
It is common practice for Chinese authorities to act quickly to censor or impose an information blackout and deploy a heavy police presence to any incident that is seen as potentially destabilizing social stability.
On Saturday, roads near the CITIC Tower were closed and police were present around the site. Only people who could prove they work in the area were allowed to enter. Delivery drivers were stuck outside and waiting for employees to come out to collect their orders, according to a CNN journalist.
Unverified flight data from Flightradar24 posted online appeared to show a severely deviated flight path for the aircraft after it took off from Beijing’s Shifosi airport.
Flying any light aircraft in Beijing requires approval from both the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. Beijing enacted a sweeping regulation last month to effectively ban casual recreational flying and consumer drones.
Deadly and highly-public incidents in China are sometimes followed by official information vacuums that can last for years.
Beijing is yet to offer any official explanation more than four years after a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed in the Guangxi region and killed 132 people, in the country’s deadliest air disaster for decades.
Joyce Jiang and Fred He contributed reporting.