A Boeing B747-400F of Cargolux bumped its nose into the ground at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai before take-off Tuesday morning. No one was injured in the incident.

Sources with the Pudong International Airport said the accident, which occurred at around 7:00 am, was caused by a mistake of the ground handling staff, who was checking the aircraft condition inside the cockpit to prepare for take-off.

"A mistake of the staff resulted in the sudden retraction of the nose gear," said Qiang Weizhong, director of the command centre of the airport.

"The front lower part of the carrier was damaged after dropping about 2 metres into the ground."

Lin Hanquan, manager of Cargolux in Shanghai, refused to confirm the information, saying they were still investigating the incident, but will need a few days for an official result.

According to the initial investigation as publicized by local media Wednesday morning, the nose gear suddenly retracted when the ground staff was doing the check-up of the carrier, but there was no mention about the mistake by the ground staff.

No one was injured. All the cargo was discharged and some 128-tons of oil was taken out after the accident.

"The normal running of Pudong airport was not disturbed because the aircraft was already in the gate position when it happened," said Su Weiwei, a liaison officer of the airport.

In a telephone interview yesterday afternoon, Lin of Cargolux said they were trying to prop up the aircraft, which by 4:00 pm yesterday still had its nose stuck in the ground and its tail in the air.

(China Daily January 27, 2006)