Created Thursday, Jun 4th 2026 16:45Z, last updated Thursday, Jul 9th 2026 16:19Z
A Lufthansa Boeing 787-9, registration D-ABPQ performing flight
LH-450 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Los Angeles,CA (USA), was preparing for boarding of passengers at the gate, when all gear doors opened and the nose gear retracted. The aircraft fell onto its nose. A number of crew on board received injuries.
The airline reported no passengers had yet boarded when the nose gear collapsed causing injuries to a number of staff.
On Jul 9th 2026 the BFU released their preliminary report stating there were 2 serious and 21 minor injuries. The BFU summarized the sequence of events:
The PIC and the Senior First Officer (SFO) entered the cockpit. There, two technicians sat in the pilot seats and were in the middle of conducting a test to resolve an open complaint regarding the control system for the main landing gear doors. Due to time constraints, electricians were unable to resolve this issue in advance. During this test, the landing gear lever should be set to “UP”, among other things. At about 10:45 UTC, immediately after the landing gear lever had been activated, the nose landing gear retracted and the aircraft’s front fuselage impacted the ground. After the impact, the cockpit door slammed shut. At the same time, the power and the lighting went out. The PIC went into the cabin to get a sense of the situation. The First Officer (FO) and one crew member were in the area of door 1R. With the command “Attention Crew on Station“, the PIC instructed the crew to go on alert. Initially, five injured crew members and four injured ground handling services members were registered. The PIC estimated that an evacuation was not necessary. As a result, he cancelled the alert with “Cancel Alert”. The airport fire brigade and rescue services were alarmed via the operator’s Hub Control Center (HCC).
After about 15 minutes, the rescue services arrived and provided initial medical care to the injured. Together with the airport fire brigade, the PIC left the airplane through door 4L after all 27 persons had left.
According to the PIC, outside the airplane three other ground handling services members had been injured. Two flight crew members and four other persons were transported to hospitals.
The BFU further wrote:
In the front cargo compartment, the partition to the avionic compartment below the cockpit was opened. The storage box for the landing gear downlock pin was stored in the avionic compartment. The landing gear downlock pin for the nose landing gear including the red flag was found inside. Four other landing gear downlock pins were properly installed in the two main landing
gears.
The nose gear lock pin was subsequently inserted into the nose gear after lifting the nose with an air cushion and extending the nose gear.
The aircraft on its nose:
Related Flight:
LH450,
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