Light aircraft crashes into Beijing’s highest tower
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- The impact shattered high-floor windows and scattered debris below.
- Authorities evacuated the area and sealed nearby roads.
A small aircraft roughly the size of a automobile crashed directly into the CITIC Tower on Friday evening, slamming into a high floor of the capital's tallest building.
The high-altitude collision shattered window panels and sent debris raining down into Beijing's heavily guarded central business district.
Witnesses reported hearing a massive explosion around 6:00 p.m. local time as the plane struck the 108-story landmark, also known locally as China Zun.
"It was so loud—louder than fireworks," a delivery courier told Reuters, describing how he rushed to the skyscraper immediately after the impact.
北京时间6月26日17:55左右，一架SA60L “阿若拉” 小型飞机撞击了北京的中信大厦（“中国尊”）。
— 建御雷 (@Takemikazuchi26) June 26, 2026
注册号B-12PP，隶属于东时双悦（北京）通用航空有限公司。 pic.twitter.com/A7geB6zfpy
Emergency response
The crash triggered an immediate, large-scale deployment of emergency services.
Dozens of police cruisers, ambulances, and fire engines rapidly surrounded the block, completely sealing off approach roads to vehicular traffic.
Inside the skyscraper -which serves as the global headquarters for the state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group- building management ordered an immediate evacuation.
Workers fled the complex into the surrounding streets, leaving personal items behind.
On the ground, witnesses observed emergency workers placing a large blue tarp over a substantial object on the road next to the tower, which onlookers estimated to be the size of a small vehicle. While the exterior of the skyscraper showed visible damage to at least two high-floor glass panels, municipal government offices did not issue an official statement regarding injuries or casualties outside of standard business hours.
Police enforce strict information lockdown
Following the impact, international wire services noted an aggressive push by Chinese security forces to suppress any documentation of the crash.
Airspace is traditionally locked down with extreme rigidity over downtown Beijing, making any unauthorized flight highly unusual.
Officers on the perimeter actively intercepted bystanders, preventing them from taking photographs and ordering individuals to delete existing multimedia files.
One courier admitted he recorded video of the fuselage wedged into the building's exterior structure but deleted the file out of fear of state retaliation.
When journalists questioned a police officer about why press teams were being forced to leave the cordoned zone, the officer responded: "We all know why!"
The physical information lockdown was mirrored across domestic digital platforms. Within an hour of the collision, photos and unverified reports detailing the wreckage were systematically scrubbed from Chinese social media networks.
Keyword searches for the building's name on popular apps like Xiaohongshu yielded zero results dated past Thursday.
