A Lufthansa Boeing 787-9, registration D-ABPQ performing flight LH-450 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Los Angeles, CA (USA), was preparing for boarding of passengers at the gate, when all gear doors opened and the nose gear retracted. The aircraft fell onto its nose. A number of crew on board received injuries.

Lufthansa’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (registration D-ABPQ) was delivered to the airline on January 16, 2026, and entered service on February 13, flying in the Allegris cabin configuration.

Another magical electrical event?

That could have been really bad if someone had been directly beneath the nose or if passengers were boarded or deboarding.

From Prune.org, a website visited by professional pilots:

"The broken away front NLG doors on the tarmac is a telltale sign that the NLG was being manipulated. Contrary to the shorter aft NLG doors with the part tail number on them, the longer front doors are normally closed on the ground. They only open on retraction/extension."

Manipulated........or a spurious electrical signal?

Update....

So the interim report was released by the German authorities and apparently the incident was caused by the nosegear downlock pin not being inserted which prevents physical cycling of the gear. Looks like maintenance technicians who were troubleshooting a reported nose gear issue were on board and someone forgot to insert the pin!

Source: https://www.gatechecked.com/user-error-lufthansa-787-nose-gear-collapsed-after-required-locking-pin-was-not-installed-during-test-11984?ref=flightaware

I wonder why there is no fail safe in place like a sensor that detects pin insertion when the aircraft is on the ground when the landing gear is cycled from the cockpit? Am I missing something?? Failing that, surely there should be a checklist of maintenance tasks to prevent this from occurring?

On a purely speculative and possibly provocative question, I wonder if the forthcoming Vector 787 models this specific behaviour in the sim??? 🤪