A Lufthansa Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered a nose gear collapse while parked at a gate at Frankfurt Airport on Thursday, according to Germany’s Deutsche Welle.
“Several employees were injured and are currently receiving medical attention,” Lufthansa said in a statement.
According to a spokesperson, the aircraft’s nose landing gear “unexpectedly retracted.” Only Lufthansa crew members and ground staff were onboard at the time, and passengers had not yet boarded the flight, which was scheduled to depart for Los Angeles.
The incident occurred around 12:45 p.m. local time in Germany. Lufthansa said technicians and support staff were at the scene and that an investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway in cooperation with authorities.
Photos and video purportedly of the incident have begun circulating on most social media platforms, although authenticity of the images and videos has not yet been confirmed.
Retracted or collapsed? There is a big difference.
Retracted. If you look at the photos, the main gear doors were also open. Seems like maintenance gone wrong. But all the news media are going with “collapsed” and making it sound like a flaw with the aircraft.
You can clearly see the nose gear retracting forward in this YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ1kRlNfd7Q&t=85s
When I first read “collapse” I assumed some sort of main gear strut failure, like a seal blowing out.
It is a flaw. It’s not supposed to be able to retract on the ground.
There are pins that are supposed to be installed. There were two prior incidents in which the pins were installed improperly. We’ll see what the investigators say, but my money is on maintenance personnel missing a step in the procedure.