A pilot was killed in the plane crash in the heart of Beijing

A light plane crashed yesterday (Friday) after midnight into the CITIC tower, the tallest skyscraper in Beijing. After almost a day when the details of the incident were shrouded in fog, the Chinese media reported that the pilot was killed in the crash and 13 other people were injured. The building, also known as China Zun, rises to a height of 528 meters and includes 109 floors. However, despite the storm that the incident caused on social networks – hours later it would appear that the event that took place in the heart of the central business district of the Chinese capital did not happen at all.

Videos have been circulated on social media showing fragments falling from the tower. Parts of the plane’s tail and a shattered windshield of a taxi damaged by the wreckage were found on the ground. Eyewitnesses reported that a glass panel was missing on one of the higher floors of the building. As mentioned, shortly after the incident, all mention of the incident was deleted from social networks in China and the state media refrained from reporting on it.

Censorship in China worked to delete the documentaries from the network, while the national television network CCTV, whose headquarters are located across the road from the scene of the disaster, did not mention the case at all. It was only later that media outlets close to the government in Beijing reported that a two-seat, single-engine light sport plane had collided during a flight with a multi-story building. In addition, we also updated about the victims in the incident. According to reports, the pilot was the only person on the plane and the circumstances of the incident are under investigation.

The tower houses the offices of the technology giant Alibaba and the CITIC conglomerate. The area is considered particularly prestigious and secure, and is home to many embassies and international financial institutions such as the World Bank. The authorities expressed concern that the plane was able to fly over the fortified area where most of the Communist Party elite live, and where there is a blanket ban even on flying drones.

The plane, model Sunward SA 60L Aurora, belongs to a local airline and is manufactured in China. Data from the website Flightradar24 indicated that the aircraft deviated severely from its planned route after taking off from Shifosi Airport in Beijing. Today, the roads leading to the tower were closed to traffic and large police forces were deployed around the complex, with only workers who could prove their place of employment being allowed to enter.

Deadly events in China are often accompanied by aggressive censorship and an official information vacuum. For example, Beijing has yet to provide an official explanation for the crash of a China Eastern airliner more than four years ago, in which 132 people were killed. Now the authorities are investigating how the current plane managed to penetrate the protected airspace of the capital and collide with the building.