American Airlines says the nose gear on a 767-300 retracted on the ground at its base at the Alliance Fort Worth Airport on 15 July while the aircraft was undergoing post-heavy maintenance functional testing before being put back into service.

The carrier would not reveal the tail number, the extent of the damage or when the aircraft might be back in service.

 American Airlines 767
 © American Airlines
The nose gear on an American Airlines 767 retracted during maintenance

"No employees were hurt during the incident," an American spokesman tells ATI. "American will complete an internal investigation of the incident to determine exactly what happened and how another occurrence of this kind can be prevented in the future."

American's maintenance operation in April was chided by the US NTSB for using "inappropriate" maintenance procedures that were found to be causal to an in-flight engine fire and emergency landing of a Boeing MD-82 in St. Louis in 2007.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news