Lufthansa Boeing 787 Dreamliner Nose Gear Collapses at Frankfurt Gate, Injuring Several Employees

A Lufthansa Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for Los Angeles suddenly dropped nose-first onto the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport on Thursday, turning a routine preflight operation into a dramatic emergency scene as ambulances and airport crews rushed to the gate.

Here’s a list of other landing gear or nose gear incidents while the airplane was on the ground since 2000.

Compared to the total number of commercial aircraft in operation and the total number of flights or landings, this is a very small number of incidents.

Lufthansa said several employees were injured after the nose landing gear of the Boeing 787-9 collapsed while the aircraft was parked at a gate. No passengers had boarded the plane at the time.

The aircraft was scheduled to operate Lufthansa Flight LH450 from Frankfurt to Los Angeles. According to Lufthansa, the incident occurred at about 12:45 p.m. local time while crew members and ground staff were on board the aircraft. The flight was canceled.

“Several staff members were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment,” Lufthansa said in a statement. The airline said it is investigating the circumstances with the relevant authorities.

Photographs and video from the scene showed the front of the aircraft resting low on the apron near the terminal, with emergency vehicles surrounding the wide-body jet. The aircraft appeared to have dropped after the front landing gear gave way while the plane was still at the stand.

Boeing said it was aware of the incident and was supporting Lufthansa, but did not immediately provide further details.

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 787-9, part of Lufthansa’s newer long-haul fleet. The Dreamliner is used on international routes and is designed for fuel-efficient long-distance flying. Lufthansa has been adding the aircraft as part of its effort to modernize its fleet and replace older, less efficient jets.

Aviation experts said a nose gear collapse while an aircraft is stationary is unusual. Former U.S. federal aviation crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti told the Associated Press that investigators will likely examine the aircraft’s maintenance history, system records, flight data and the landing gear components themselves. Possible areas of review could include prior damage, mechanical failure or maintenance-related issues, though officials have not identified a cause.

The incident is likely to draw close scrutiny because it involved a relatively new aircraft type in Lufthansa’s fleet and occurred during ground operations before passenger boarding. Nose gear systems are designed with safeguards to prevent unintended retraction or collapse, especially while an aircraft is parked.

A similar incident involving a Boeing 787 occurred in 2021 at London Heathrow Airport during maintenance. British investigators later found that a locking pin intended to prevent the nose landing gear from retracting had been inserted in the wrong position during testing. That earlier case does not mean Thursday’s incident had the same cause, but it shows why investigators will likely focus heavily on maintenance procedures and gear-locking mechanisms.

The Boeing 787 program has faced broader scrutiny in recent years over production and quality-control issues, including delivery delays and inspections involving fuselage gaps, pressurization components and tail fittings. Boeing has said in past cases that some of those issues affected deliveries but did not necessarily pose immediate safety risks to aircraft already in service.

For passengers, the most important fact in Thursday’s incident is that no one had boarded the Los Angeles-bound flight before the collapse. The injuries were reported among airline employees, crew members and ground personnel who were working around or inside the aircraft.

The cause of the nose gear collapse remains under investigation.