The authorities in Beijing said Thursday that the pilot who flew a small plane into the city’s tallest building last week was a 66-year-old man suffering from insomnia and anxiety and who had expressed a desire to end his life in journal entries.
The pilot crashed his two-seat sport aircraft into Citic Tower, the headquarters of one of China’s biggest state-owned financial conglomerates, in a busy Beijing business district last Friday during evening rush hour.
In a sign of the authorities’ sensitivity over an event that raised questions about the city’s security, it took almost 24 hours after videos first emerged on social media for officials to confirm the crash. Discussion and posts about the crash were scrubbed from social media.
The Chaoyang District government, which administers a large area of eastern Beijing where the tower is, said in a statement that the plane had been flown by a man surnamed Liu, a self-employed resident of Beijing who was divorced and lived alone.
Officials said Mr. Liu had taken off from an airport in Beijing’s eastern Pinggu District Friday afternoon, then deviated from the area designated for flying and lost contact with the airport. The statement said that he then crashed into the high-rise building and died.
The authorities said that 13 others at the scene suffered injuries, none of them life-threatening.
“A comprehensive investigation concluded that this is a case of endangering public safety caused by personal reasons,” the statement said.
The authorities in China often attribute random acts of violence to residents with personal grievances seeking “revenge on society,” offering little information on the exact motive for such attacks.
The crash, less than five miles from the seat of the Chinese Communist Party in Zhongnanhai, 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.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
