Damage is seen on the facade of Citic Tower Zun in Beijing, China, Saturday. Witnesses say a small plane crashed into Beijing’s tallest tower on Friday. Photo by Jessica Lee/EPA
June 27 (UPI) — The local authorities acknowledged the plane crash that hit Beijing’s tallest building Friday, saying the pilot died and 13 people were injured.
A short statement on WeChat from the local Chaoyang District government said only the pilot was on the plane and was killed in the crash. The statement said 13 people in the building and on the ground were injured. They didn’t identify the pilot or a motive.
The statement said, a “single-engine double-seat light sports aircraft collided with a high-rise building in flight.” It said the incident is being investigated. It didn’t name the building and only called it a skyscraper near the East Third Ring Road.
All references to the crash, video and images were scrubbed from social media in China. The state media, whose headquarters is across the street from the 109-story Citic Tower, hasn’t reported anything about the crash.
It’s not known if the crash was intentional.
Beijing airspace is tightly controlled, and even drones are mostly banned within the city. It’s not clear how the pilot got around the tight controls.
FL360Aero.com, an aviation news site, posted images and video on X from the scene, showing a plane’s tail lying on the sidewalk. The post estimated that it hit around the 65th floor of the building.
Flightradar24 posted on X flight data that appeared to show a deviated flight path for the plane after it took off from Shifosi airport in Beijing’s eastern Pinggu district.
