Lufthansa B744 enroute on Jan 29th 2014, severe turbulence caused airframe overstress

A Lufthansa Boeing 747-400, registration D-ABVW performing flight LH-446 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Denver,CO (USA), encountered severe turbulence enroute. The crew continued the flight to Denver, where emergency services prepared ambulances for the arrival of the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely on Denver's runway 17R using routine communication and taxied to the gate reporting no injuries on board of the aircraft. The damage to the aircraft is being assessed.

A post flight inspection revealed that the aircraft had encountered accelerations beyond permitted limits requiring maintenance, the return flight LH-447 was cancelled. The incident aircraft is still on the ground in Denver 25 hours after landing.

The aircraft had entered Oceanic Airspace leaving the UK at FL350 but entered Canadian Airspace at FL270 later climbing to FL340 and resuming usual step climb afterwards.