A small aircraft, roughly the size of a car, crashed into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper, the CITIC Tower (also known as China Zun), on Friday, according to two bystanders who spoke to Reuters. The incident prompted a heavy police presence and road closures around the 108-storey building in the capital’s central business district.
Eyewitness Accounts and Police Response
Police cordoned off approach roads, preventing cars from accessing the area and stopping passersby from taking photographs. Some witnesses were asked to delete images they had captured, while others were ushered away from the building. Two glass panels on a high floor were visibly damaged, though no immediate official statement was issued. Beijing’s municipal government did not respond to a faxed request for comment from Reuters outside of business hours.
A courier who spoke to Reuters said he rushed to the scene around 6 p.m. local time after hearing a loud crash. “It was so loud — louder than fireworks,” he recounted. He recorded a video showing the aircraft protruding from the building but later deleted it. Another courier arrived after seeing unverified social media images of wreckage on a road adjacent to the tower. Dozens of police cars and several fire trucks lined the surrounding streets.
Background and Context
CITIC Tower, the headquarters of the state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group, stands as Beijing’s tallest structure. The crash comes over four years after a China Eastern passenger jet carrying 132 people crashed into a mountainside in southern China in 2022, shortly after losing contact with air traffic control and plummeting thousands of meters.
No official confirmation of casualties or the aircraft’s origin has been provided. Authorities have not released any details regarding potential injuries or the flight’s purpose. The incident is under investigation, with police maintaining a tight security perimeter around the skyscraper.
