Small aircraft crashes into Beijing's tallest building, eyewitnesses say

An aircraft, described as being about the size of a car, crashed into Beijing's tallest skyscraper, the 108-storey CITIC Tower, on June 26. Two bystanders told Reuters they witnessed the event.

Police quickly secured the scene, closing roads around the central business district skyscraper, which serves as the headquarters for the state-owned CITIC Group. Authorities prevented onlookers from filming and asked some to delete images they had captured, while ushering people away from the building.

Two glass panels on a high floor of the CITIC Tower were reported damaged. There was no immediate official comment from authorities. Beijing's municipal government did not respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.

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It was so loud – louder than fireworks.

A courier near the building reported hearing a loud crash around 6 p.m. local time. He stated he filmed the aircraft lodged in the building but later deleted the video out of fear of police repercussions. Another courier mentioned seeing unverified social media images of aircraft wreckage on a nearby road before coming to the scene.

Social media posts depicting the building on the day of the incident were rapidly removed from Chinese platforms. Searches for the building's name on the Xiaohongshu app only yielded posts from the previous day. A police officer at the scene instructed Reuters journalists to leave, cryptically stating, "We all know why!"

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We all know why!