A Lufthansa Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner suffered a nose landing gear collapse while parked at a gate at Frankfurt Airport on Thursday, injuring several employees and forcing the cancellation of a scheduled flight to Los Angeles.

The incident occurred before passenger boarding had begun. According to Lufthansa, only crew members and ground personnel were on board the aircraft when the nose gear failed, causing the front section of the aircraft to suddenly crash to the ground.

In a statement, the German carrier confirmed that several employees were injured and were receiving medical treatment. The airline said it is working with the relevant authorities to investigate the incident and determine what caused the failure.

Dramatic scene captured on video

Video footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft's front wheels sliding forward before the nose of the Boeing 787 dropped several metres onto the tarmac. A ground crew member standing close to the aircraft was seen quickly moving away as the nose descended.

The impact reportedly caused the doors of the nose landing gear bay to break off. Although no passengers were on board at the time, the incident highlighted the potential risks associated with ground operations around large commercial aircraft.

The affected aircraft was scheduled to operate a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles. The flight was subsequently cancelled following the accident.

One of Lufthansa's newest widebody

The aircraft involved is one of the newest additions to Lufthansa's long-haul fleet. According to flight-tracking platform Flightradar24, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is just over a year old.

The aircraft was delivered to Lufthansa in January and entered commercial service in February. Since then, it has completed 137 flights, making the incident particularly surprising given the aircraft's relatively short operational history.

Boeing acknowledged the event and said it is aware of the incident and is supporting its airline customer during the investigation.

Experts call accident highly unusual

Aviation experts say such failures are extremely rare, especially when an aircraft is stationary. Jeff Guzzetti, a former US federal aviation crash investigator, described the incident as "very unusual" and cautioned that it is too early to determine the exact cause.

According to Guzzetti, investigators will likely examine several possible factors, including whether the landing gear had suffered previous damage, experienced a mechanical failure, or was affected by maintenance-related issues.

He noted that investigators will review maintenance records, aircraft system data, and previous flight information to understand how the landing gear performed during earlier operations. "They're going to look at every square inch of that nose landing gear strut and the mechanisms that operate it," Guzzetti said.

Similar Dreamliner incident at Heathrow in 2021

While rare, this is not the first time a Boeing 787 has experienced a nose gear-related incident on the ground. In 2021, a Boeing 787-8 at London's Heathrow Airport suffered a similar nose drop while undergoing maintenance testing. According to the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the aircraft's nose landing gear unexpectedly retracted during a maintenance procedure, causing the front section of the aircraft to collapse onto the pavement.

The investigation found that a locking pin designed to prevent gear retraction had been inserted incorrectly. As a result, the landing gear folded despite safety systems intended to keep it extended.

Although the circumstances of the Heathrow incident were linked to maintenance procedures, investigators examining the Frankfurt event will likely consider whether any comparable technical or procedural factors played a role.

Dreamliner programme facing manufacturing scrutiny

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner entered commercial service in 2011 and has become one of the world's most widely used long-haul aircraft families. The 787-9 variant involved in the Frankfurt incident can accommodate up to 296 passengers, depending on airline configuration.

While the aircraft has established a strong operational record, Boeing's 787 programme has faced a number of manufacturing and quality-control challenges in recent years.

In 2020, Boeing identified small gaps between carbon-composite fuselage sections, prompting inspections that later uncovered issues involving a pressurisation bulkhead near the front of the aircraft.

In May 2021, Boeing temporarily halted Dreamliner deliveries while US regulators reviewed documentation related to manufacturing work carried out on newly built aircraft.

The company again delayed deliveries in June 2023 after identifying what it described as a "nonconforming condition" involving fittings on the horizontal stabiliser. Boeing stated at the time that the issue posed no immediate safety risk to aircraft already in service but could affect future deliveries.

Investigation focus on landing gear failure

At this stage, there is no indication that the Frankfurt incident is connected to any of the manufacturing issues that previously affected the Dreamliner programme. However, the event is expected to attract significant attention because of the aircraft's young age and the unusual nature of a nose landing gear collapse while parked at a gate.

Investigators will now focus on determining whether the failure resulted from a mechanical defect, maintenance issue, operational error, or another technical factor.

Until those findings emerge, the incident serves as a reminder that even modern aircraft equipped with advanced systems remain dependent on the reliability of critical structural and landing gear components, both in the air and on the ground.