Originally published at: Lufthansa 787 Suffers Nose Gear Collapse At Frankfurt
Several Lufthansa employees were injured in the incident; passengers had not yet boarded the Los Angeles-bound flight.
Retracted or collapsed? There is a big difference.
Retracted. If you look at the photos, the main gear doors were also open. Seems like maintenance gone wrong. But all the news media are going with “collapsed” and making it sound like a flaw with the aircraft.
You can clearly see the nose gear retracting forward in this YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ1kRlNfd7Q&t=85s
When I first read “collapse” I assumed some sort of main gear strut failure, like a seal blowing out.
It is a flaw. It’s not supposed to be able to retract on the ground.
There are pins that are supposed to be installed. There were two prior incidents in which the pins were installed improperly. We’ll see what the investigators say, but my money is on maintenance personnel missing a step in the procedure.
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