BERLIN (AP) — German airline Lufthansa said several employees were injured Thursday after the nose gear of a Boeing jet suddenly gave way while the aircraft was parked at a gate in Frankfurt, sending the front tip of the plane crashing down to the ground.
Only crew members and ground staff were on board the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner when the plane's nose fell ahead of passenger boarding for a scheduled flight to Los Angeles. The flight was later canceled.
“Several employees were injured and are currently receiving medical attention,” Lufthansa said, adding that it and relevant authorities were investigating the circumstances of the incident.
The plane is a year old, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
Boeing said Thursday in an emailed statement that it is “aware of the incident” and "supporting our customer.”
Video from the scene appeared to show the front wheels of the wide-body plane sliding forward and the plane's nose falling down several meters (yards), as a ground crew member standing nearby quickly backed away.
The doors to the nose gear bay broke off upon impact.
A 2021 incident at London's Heathrow Airport also involved the nose landing gear of a Boeing 787. According to a report by the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, a 787-8 was undergoing maintenance at a gate when its nose landing gear retracted during testing, causing the aircraft’s nose to drop onto the pavement. Investigators found that a locking pin intended to prevent retraction had been inserted into the wrong position, allowing the gear to fold despite safeguards designed to keep it extended.
The 787 Dreamliner, a wide-body twin-aisle aircraft used primarily on long-haul international routes, first entered service in 2011. The version involved in Thursday’s incident can carry up to 296 passengers, depending on configuration.
In recent years, the 787 has been plagued by production flaws and quality-control issues, with shipments of the large plane temporarily halted on multiple occasions.
Issues with the 787 started in 2020 when small gaps were found between panels of the fuselage that are made of carbon composite material. That prompted inspections that turned up problems with a pressurization bulkhead at the front of the plane.
In May 2021, Boeing halted 787 deliveries while U.S. federal regulators looked over documentation of work that was done on new planes.
In June 2023, Boeing said 787 deliveries were delayed again while it inspected fittings on part of the aircraft’s tail — the horizontal stabilizer — after identifying a “nonconforming condition.” The company said at the time that the issue would affect near-term deliveries but was not considered a safety risk for aircraft already in service.
