FRANKFURT — A maintenance error caused the nose landing gear of a Lufthansa Boeing 787-9 to collapse on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport, injuring 23 people, an interim report by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) found.
The landing gear locking pin was not inserted before two technicians moved the gear lever to the "Up" position during a cockpit test, the agency said in findings published on Thursday. The pin was later found in a storage box in the forward cargo hold, not in the gear assembly where it should have secured the strut.
The June 4 incident at stand A15 in front of Terminal 1 involved flight LH450, which was preparing to depart for Los Angeles with 28 people aboard — technicians, cabin crew, and ground staff. Twenty-one people suffered minor injuries and two were seriously hurt when the aircraft settled onto its nose.
The Dreamliner, delivered to Lufthansa earlier in 2026 with only 137 flights logged, remains under investigation, with a final report expected in roughly one year.