00:00In one of the most controlled cities on the planet, a small aircraft just did the unthinkable.
00:07It flew straight into Beijing's tallest skyscraper.
00:11This is not a war zone.
00:13This is not a city under attack.
00:15This is Beijing, the capital of China, one of the most heavily monitored, most fortified,
00:22most surveilled urban spaces in the entire world.
00:26And yet, on Friday afternoon, a plane hit the Siddic Tower, also known as China Zun.
00:35109 floors of steel and glass, the tallest building in the Chinese capital.
00:41Dramatic footage posted on social media shows the moment it happened.
00:45Debris cascading down the side of the building, a tail section of the plane visible on impact,
00:51a broken taxi window on the street below.
00:54People frozen, looking up, in disbelief.
00:58A CNN journalist on the ground witnessed the immediate aftermath.
01:02Hundreds of people evacuated from the skyscraper, gathering on the streets outside.
01:07Fire trucks, police cars, an ambulance.
01:10The full emergency response descending on one of Beijing's most iconic addresses.
01:16Now, here is where the questions start piling up.
01:20The aircraft appears to be a Sunward SA-60L Aurora, a domestically manufactured light sport
01:27plane owned by a local general aviation company that offers pilot training, recreational flights,
01:33and aerial photography services.
01:36Unverified flight data from FlightRadar24 posted online shows something deeply alarming.
01:43After taking off from Beijing's Shifisi Airport, the aircraft's flight path deviated severely, violently,
01:50in a way that makes no sense for a routine flight.
01:53That deviation led it straight into China's end.
01:58And here is the detail that should stop you cold.
02:02Beijing has been effectively drone-free since May 1.
02:06Sweeping new rules mean residents cannot buy, rent, or fly drones anywhere within the city's
02:13vast jurisdiction without direct government approval.
02:16The airspace over this city is not open.
02:19It is locked down.
02:21So how did a plane take off, deviate dramatically from its path, and strike the tallest building
02:28in the capital without being intercepted?
02:31That is the question Beijing has not answered tonight.
02:35When CNN called the relevant district branch of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, the person
02:41who picked up said they were not familiar with the situation.
02:44They gave another number.
02:46That number went unanswered.
02:48The Beijing municipality government has not responded.
02:52The aviation company has not responded.
02:55The silence from authorities is as loud as the impact itself.
03:00Was this an accident?
03:01A catastrophic mechanical failure?
03:04A medical emergency in the cockpit?
03:06Something else entirely?
03:08Nobody is saying.
03:09Beijing.
03:09And in a city where the government controls almost every piece of information, that silence
03:15is not nothing.
03:16That silence is a story in itself.
03:20What we know tonight is this.
03:22A plane breached the airspace of one of the world's most controlled capitals.
03:27It struck a 109-story skyscraper in broad daylight, and the authorities of the most surveilled
03:33nation on Earth are saying they do not know what happened.
03:37Beijing has a lot to explaining to do, and the world is watching.
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