Confirmed: Collapsed Boeing 787-9’s Nose Gear Was Missing Downlock Pin

The initial investigation into why a Lufthansa Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner experienced a nosegear collapse at Frankfurt Airport on June 4, 2026 has revealed that the downlock pin was missing. The absence of this component caused the plane's front to suddenly collapse, plummeting to the ground while being prepared at the gate for a flight to Los Angeles. We take a look at the details of the interim report for today's video. First off, to make a long story short, it looks like technicians did not insert the correct pin into the nose landing gear, as this key component was found stored in the avionics compartment storage box. However, let's go into other details released by investigators and go over what happened. The interim report conducted by the Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung, or German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, suggests that the two technicians were sitting in the pilot seat to conduct testing when the nose landing gear collapsed. During the test, the landing gear lever should have been set to the UP position. At approximately 1045 UTC, the landing gear lever had been activated, which resulted in the landing gear retracting and the Dreamliner's nose impacting the ground. This caused the cockpit door to slam shut as the aircraft's power and lighting went out. Consequently, the investigators consulted with the airport operator, Fraport, and other individual companies involved in the incident. It was stated that 34 individuals were identified as part of the investigation, including 28 who were on board the aircraft at the time. An additional five ground handling service members were outside the plane on the apron, including one technician at the nose of the landing gear. Two individuals were taken to hospital with serious injuries, while another 21 were treated on the scene for minor injuries. This sequence of maintenance actions which resulted in the incident raises questions about adherence to established maintenance procedures and checklists and about why the safety pin had been omitted. During its investigation, the BFU was able to identify that the landing gear downlock pin was not inserted into the designated hole and had not been in the vicinity of the nose landing gear itself. The most similar accident to this took place in June 2021 and involved British Airways 787. With that incident, crews needed to address three fault messages associated with the nose landing gear doors and had to cycle the landing gear to confirm that it functioned correctly. To prevent the landing gear from actually retracting when UP was selected, the landing gear downlock pins were fitted. However, when UP was selected, the NLG ended up retracting. Investigators for that incident discovered that the nose landing gear downlock pin had been inadvertently inserted in the downlock link assembly apex pin instead of the downlock pin hole. It was ruled that the design of the aircraft nose landing gear downlock assembly created an opportunity for error when inserting the locking pin, since the two holes were located so close together that the pin could be accidentally inserted in the wrong location. With this most recent incident, it's a different story, seemingly one of negligence rather than confusion and improper placement of the pin. That's because investigators found that the nose landing gear downlock pin was still inside its storage box in the avionics compartment. In other words, the pin had not been installed before the test began, although four other downlock pins on the main landing gear were correctly installed and undisturbed. So what do you think of all this? Let us know by leaving a comment. SimpleFlying Publishes over 150 articles every week. If you're looking for the latest aviation news and insights, visit SimpleFlying.com