Multiple news outlets with reporters on the ground in Beijing reported on Friday that a small aircraft, described by Reuters as about the “size of a car,” had crashed into the Chinese capital’s Citic Tower, its tallest building.
Concurrent with reports of the dramatic incident stated that Chinese police were threatening eyewitnesses not to take photos and pressuring them to delete any images of the crash on their phones. The Chinese government’s main English-language news outlets — the Xinhua News Agency and the Global Times newspaper — have not at press time addressed the incident. Reuters reported that searches for the building’s name on regime-controlled social media outlets appeared to be censored to prevent discussion.
The surface of the Citic Tower also known as Zun Tower is damaged in Beijing,, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Han Guan Ng)
Few images are currently available of the incident and its aftermath. The Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao published one of the few, showing panicked pedestrians fleeing the site and a plume of smoke from the bottom of the skyscraper:
Multiple Indian media outlets also published videos surfacing on social media, many believed to have been deleted as Chinese censors ramped up their crackdown of the scene. The footage does not appear to show that the integrity of the tower is jeopardized, instead appearing to show a more immediate threat of large pieces of debris falling from the 109-floor skyscraper with the potential to injure or kill those down below.
The Twitter account “Mr. Li Is Not Your Teacher,” which publishes materials censored in China, shared a variety of images and photos on Friday allegedly from the scene, including some taken from skyscrapers nearby which place the crash at almost eye level. Breitbart News could not independently verify the authenticity of these images.
The account also published images allegedly of the airplane in question.
According to Ming Pao, the incident occurred on Friday afternoon local time and authorities have offered no information that could clarify what happened. Deaths or casualties remain unknown, as do the number of people onboard the aircraft or where it came from. Beijing imposes very strict limits on flying objects, both vehicles and drones, leaving unclear how the aircraft ended up in one of the most densely developed parts of the capital.
“It was not immediately clear whether the crash caused any casualties or how many people had been on board the aircraft. The origin of the aerial vehicle and the circumstances leading to the crash were also unknown,” another Hong Kong newspaper, the South China Morning Post, relayed on Friday. The Post reported that the crash site was surrounded by ambulances and emergency personnel as well as police, suggesting the expectation of some casualties. The newspaper also spoke to an eyewitness who ran out of the building, stating that she fled at around 6 p.m. in response to a crash.
“The video shows the plane disintegrating in the air after crashing into the high-rise east of the CITIC Building, with debris scattered across the ground, with some of the wreckage falling on the canopy of the building’s east gate and starting a fire,” Ming Pao detailed elsewhere.
Multiple outlets — including Ming Pao, CNN, and the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency — identified the aircraft involved as a Sunward SA60L Aurora, believed to be a two-seat design constructed in China. Ming Pao identified the owners of the aircraft as “Dongshi Shuangyue General Aviation,” a company that specializes in tourism flights and air tours.
The Twitter account “The Great Translation Movement” (TGTM), which is dedicated to sharing uncensored news from communist China in English, also reported that the company identified is a “subsidiary/business of Oriental Fashion, a major Chinese driving school company that expanded into general aviation and flight training.” The account claimed to identify a pilot and stated the plane was being driven solo. Breitbart News could not independently verify this information.
“No public reports directly link this specific general aviation incident to CITIC (a major Chinese state-owned conglomerate),” the account claimed. “It appears to be a private/general aviation operation under the Oriental Fashion/Dongshi Shuangyue group, focused on flight training rather than commercial or CITIC-affiliated operations.”
It noted that some rumors were linking the alleged pilot of the flight to the CITIC company, a massive corporation with close ties to the Chinese government, but such rumors are unconfirmed at press time as the pilot’s identity remains unconfirmed.
These reports coincide with reporting from Beijing by CNN, which had an employee on the ground during the crash. CNN identified the same plane model as other reports and added that it was allegedly “owned by a local general aviation company which offers services like pilot training, personal recreational flights, and aerial photography.”
“Unverified flight data from Flightradar24 posted online appeared to show a severely deviated flight path for the aircraft,” CNN observed.
The scarcity of information available, and rumors circulating online as a result, are in large part due to the Chinese government offering no information and censoring those wishing to film the crash site. Bloomberg News reported that its photographers were told “not to take photographs” by police, without explanation. Similarly, Reuters reported, “Police prevented some people from taking pictures and asked others to delete those they had taken while ushering people away from the building.”
“Social media posts of the building on Friday were quickly removed from Chinese social media. A search of the building’s name on the Xiaohongshu app returned only posts dated Thursday,” Reuters added, noting that its reporter was expelled from the area around the crash.
TGTM published screenshots of alleged search results on Chinese regime-controlled media outlets for the building: