China identifies pilot who crashed small plane into Beijing’s tallest building, cites ‘personal reasons’ as cause

The pilot killed when a plane crashed into Beijing’s tallest building was a 66-year-old man surnamed ⁠Liu, Beijing’s Chaoyang district government said.

The pilot killed when a plane crashed into Beijing’s tallest building last Friday was a 66-year-old man surnamed ⁠Liu, Beijing’s Chaoyang district government said on Thursday, as officials seek to end speculation about the incident.

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Without identifying the 108-storey CITIC Tower, headquarters of one of China’s largest state-owned conglomerates and located about 4.3 miles east of the Zhongnanhai leadership compound, the Chaoyang government said Liu had deviated from his approved flight area and lost ⁠contact with the airport from which he took off ​before ⁠crashing into the building, dying at the scene.