>>Heard, that the same thing happened to a Northwest Airline years ago. The nose wheel pin doesn´t seem to be designed too mechanic friendly....
Northwest had a 747-200 nosegear collapse at Changi (SIN) a few years ago. Maintenance had substituted an Airbus gear pin (like everything thing else, they are thinner and lighter than the Boeing part). The gear pin had a locally improvised handle attached and the handle caught the gear door when the door cycled for a ground test. Luckily, no one was injured...