Several flight attendants and ground workers have been rushed to the hospital after they were injured when the nose gear of a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner belonging to the German flag carrier Lufthansa unexpectedly collapsed at the gate at Frankfurt am Main Airport on Thursday afternoon.
The aircraft, which was only delivered to Lufthansa in January, was preparing for departure for a transatlantic flight to Los Angeles as flight LH-450 when the accident occurred on June 4.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Lufthansa confirmed that no passengers were on board the plane at the time of the incident, but crew members, as well as ground staff, had already boarded to start their preparations when the nose gear collapsed.
“Several employees were injured and are currently receiving medical attention,” the statement added.
“We are currently investigating the exact circumstances together with the relevant authorities. Technicians and support staff are on site. We will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.”
According to flight tracking websites, Boeing started test flights of this brand new Boeing 787-9 (registration: D-ABPQ) in October 2025, before it was delivered to Lufthansa on January 17, 2026.
At list price, a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner can cost as much as $300 million. The aircraft features Lufthansa’s bespoke Allegris Business Class cabin, which faced significant regulatory hurdles during its certification for the 787 Dreamliner.
Lufthansa only began to fly the Boeing 787 from its Frankfurt hub in October 2025. The airline currently has ten of the aircraft based in Frankfurt, operating routes like Austin, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Cape Town, Shanghai, Hyderabad, and Hong Kong.
The 787 Dreamliner only started operating the Frankfurt to Los Angeles at the start of June.
Passengers who had been waiting to board flight LH-450 were left in stunned silence after they suddenly witnessed the nose gear collapse onto the tarmac below as they looked on through the expansive windows at Frankfurt Airport.
Photos and videos of the accident quickly spread on social media, showing the significant damage to the aircraft. Along with damage to the nose of the aircraft, the forward cargo door was also badly damaged as it collapsed against ground equipment.
The incident is reminiscent of a very similar accident that occurred on a British Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Heathrow Airport on a rainy day in June 2021.
The aircraft had been parked at a remote stand away from the terminal building and was actually being prepared for a cargo-only mission to bring back personal protective equipment from Asia.
During the turnaround, the aircraft was undergoing maintenance, which included a procedure in which the landing gear selection lever had to be cycled in the cockpit. To prevent the landing gear from retracting, engineers were required to insert a pin into a hole within the landing gear.
The engineer tasked with this job had never inserted the pin before and accidentally inserted it into an adjacent hole that did not lock the landing gear into place. Accident investigators later determined that the two holes appeared very similar and were not clearly marked.
Lufthansa started taking delivery of its brand new Boeing 787s late last year without its Allegris Business Class cabin being certified for use because the regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was taking so long.
The FAA only certified most of the seats in February, although three of the 28 seats on these aircraft still can’t be occupied by passengers because of ongoing regulatory oversight.
