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by WILL FOLKS
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A Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner collapsed on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport in Germany on Thursday (June 4, 2026), injuring multiple workers and raising fresh concerns about the quality of the passenger jets manufactured at South Carolina’s heavily taxpayer-subsidized Boeing facility in North Charleston.
The plane – operated by Lufthansa – was being prepared for a scheduled flight to Los Angeles International Airport when its nose gear suddenly collapsed, sending the plane crashing down to the concrete below.
Take a look…
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A nearly five-month-old Lufthansa Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner at Frankfurt, preparing for a flight to Los Angeles, experienced a nose landing gear collapse at the gate. pic.twitter.com/72b6J4HyIr
— Aviation (@xAviation) June 4, 2026
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No passengers were aboard the jet when the incident occurred (12:45 p.m. local time), but two Lufthansa crew members who were inside the plane sustained unspecified injuries – as did several service workers. The flight was canceled and the airline has initiated an investigation into what transpired.
News of the incident was first reported by Aero Telegraph.
“Several employees were injured and are currently receiving medical attention,” a Lufthansa spokesperson told Simply Flying. “We are currently investigating the exact circumstances together with the relevant authorities. Technicians and support staff are on site. We will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.”
The airline described the landing gear as having “unexpectedly retracted.”
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According to the publication, there is no initial estimate as to the damage sustained during the incident – although “the engines came into contact with the ground as the nose gear gave way, with at least one of the gear’s flaps having been severed by the impact.”
“The Dreamliner’s composite fuselage makes it particularly sensitive to such damage,” reporter Jake Hardiman reported.
Boeing issued a brief statement indicating it was aware of the incident and was “supporting our customer.”
Issues with Boeing jets – especially those made in the Palmetto State – have peppered our pages for the past decade-and-a-half. While the vast majority of media outlets in South Carolina have been reflexive cheerleaders for the crony capitalist aerospace giant, FITSNews has consistently called them out – and consistently called out the “Republican” politicians who doled out a massive $1 billion corporate welfare package to get the company to locate a manufacturing facility in North Charleston in 2009.
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Our scrutiny of Boeing ramped up in the aftermath of the March 9, 2024 suicide of 62-year old John Barnett of Pineville, Louisiana. Barnett spent over three-and-a-half decades of his life working at Boeing as a quality control manager – including seven years at the North Charleston facility. After he left the company, Barnett became a prominent corporate whistleblower – exposing serious safety problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as well as broader cultural issues within the company.
“I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I would consider safe and airworthy,” Barnett told reporter Nadia Daly of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in January of 2020.
South Carolina leaders, however, have hailed the jets – with former governor Nikki Haley once referring to them as “mack daddy planes.”
The jet involved in this week’s incident was delivered to Lufthansa in January of this year, one of seventeen Dreamliners in its fleet. Another twenty (20) Dreamliners are currently on order, according to the company.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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SOUND OFF…
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