The Beijing authorities said on Saturday that a small aircraft had flown into the capital’s tallest building a day earlier, killing the pilot and injuring 13 others at the scene, in the first official confirmation of an event that has raised questions about the city’s security.
The Chaoyang District government, which administers a large area of eastern Beijing, including where the tower is, said in a statement that a two-seat, single-engine sport aircraft “crashed into a high-rise building mid-flight” at 5:55 p.m. on Friday, near one of the city’s most important business districts. The statement said the injured had been being given extensive medical care.
The statement, which said that authorities were investigating the crash, came almost 24 hours after videos on social media showed hunks of debris and plane parts plummeting onto the streets below the building, Citic Tower. The tower is the headquarters of Citic Group, one of China’s biggest state-owned financial conglomerates.
A gaping hole in the building was still visible on Sunday as the police maintained a perimeter of several blocks around the site and questioned pedestrians who approached. Five police cars were stationed at the northeast corner of the tower, three with flashing lights.
A small derrick, of the sort sometimes used in building repairs, was visible on Sunday morning protruding from the upper edge of the hole. The derrick had not been there on Saturday morning.
The crash, less than five miles from the seat of the Chinese Communist Party in Zhongnanhai, has prompted questions about how a pilot was able to fly into the city center unobstructed. China strictly controls its airspace, issuing bans on the flying of drones, racing pigeons and kites during important events. The crash occurred in sunny, calm weather, far from any airport.
It was also unclear why an aircraft used for training exercises in a district about 30 miles east of the high-rise was flying into the city center. Photos of the debris posted to social media showed parts of an aircraft that appeared to be a lightweight model registered to Shuangyue General Aviation, a regional flight training provider in the outlying eastern district of Pinggu.
Data from FlightRadar, a flight tracking website, showed that the plane took off from an airfield inPinggu on Friday at 5:31 p.m. and circled the area before flying west into the city center.
According to data on FlightRadar, all of the plane’s recorded flights in the last three months have been in the Pinggu District.
The authorities did not name the pilot, and social media posts identifying the pilot as a Citic employee could not be verified.
A representative for Citic Group declined to answer questions on the record on Sunday.
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