Ethiopian Airlines 787 Nose Gear Collapses at the Gate

As passengers sat patiently waiting to depart for Rome, suddenly the Dreamliner slammed onto the tarmac as the nose gear gave way. How did it happen?

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-800 scheduled to fly from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Rome, had just completed boarding and was about to depart when the nose gear collapsed at the gate. Passengers were shaken in the incident, and one flight attendant was injured. The Dreamliner, not surprisingly, received significant damage.

The question of how in the world the gear could collapse as the airplane sat idle won’t be conclusively known until the investigation into the March 3 incident is completed. But early signs are pointing to human error.

A senior official with the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority has told Aviation International News that it appears technicians working on the 787 inadvertently caused the gear collapse due to a “technical error.” A senior airline official, meanwhile, told AIN the failure was caused by “technical error.”

The report posted at AINonline.com said it will take officials about two weeks to finish their investigation and issue a definitive cause.