The humble plane is like magic to those uninitiated. Magical flying metal birds that take you across continents in a matter of hours. Crazy stuff, right?
Well, like all feats of human ingenuity, sometimes they break in pretty scary ways. There's about a million and one things that can go wrong in a plane—but the chances are slim.
In any case, that's what happened to a practically new (especially in plane terms!) Lufthansa Boeing 787 Dreamliner. According to the New York Post, shocking viral footage shows it collapsing on its front wheel. The wild incident happened on Thursday, June 4.
The viral clip appears to show the front landing gear collapsing before the nose of the plane smashes straight into the ground. The plane was in the process of being refuelled.
The flight was due to go from Frankfurt to Los Angeles. In a post on social media from FlightRadar24, they explained the situation.
"Following a gear collapse at the gate in Frankfurt, Lufthansa 787-9 D-ABPQ has been significantly damaged. Today's LH450 has been canceled. We are awaiting more information on any potential injuries," they wrote.
A Lufthansa spokesperson further went into detail about the event. "The aircraft's nose landing gear unexpectedly folded in while parked."
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The statement continued, "At the time of the incident, crew and ground staff were on board." Luckily, they confirmed that passengers had not yet boarded. Things could have been so much worse.
They added that "Several employees were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment." However, they have not confirmed the nature of the injuries, nor whether any of them were serious.
The current cause of the airplane's collapse is not known. However, people on social media have speculated on the reasons behind the plane's collapse in the manner it did.
One person wrote, "Some one forgot to check work done. Sounds like some bolts were either removed or not replaced," while another person wrote, "Either the nose landing gear pin was not installed or it failed or was not installed correctly. The mishap is on the ground crew."
In any case, we're just glad the plane didn't hurt anyone else.
