China is establishing a vast airspace security zone roughly the size of Italy around Beijing, barring all but commercial, approved business and emergency flights, months after a small aircraft crashed into the capital’s tallest building.
A permanent 600-kilometre-wide circle of “Special Restricted Area” centred around Beijing will take effect from September 20, an aviation notice attributed to Beijing airspace control authorities and available through the US Federal Aviation Administration’s public NOTAM search system reviewed by Reuters showed.
The entire airspace, from ground to unlimited altitude, will be closed for all flights except for commercial airline flights, approved business flights and military, customs, police and fire-rescue flights, the notice showed.
The over 280,000-square-kilometre zone encompasses Beijing and Tianjin, much of Hebei, and extends into parts of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and the Bohai Sea. By a rough geographic estimate, some 100 million people and dozens of airports and smaller airfields fall within its bounds.
The zone is among the largest permanent airspace restrictions imposed over a capital city. It follows a rare breach of Beijing’s tightly controlled skies that raised questions about security gaps in the airspace around the Chinese capital.
A light sport aircraft crashed into the 108-storey CITIC Tower in Beijing’s central business district on June 26. Local authorities said the crash killed the sole pilot and injured 13 others who were not on board.
