Stricken Excavator Recovery

There was a time during the early days of this blog, that machinery accidents and incidents were a regular feature here, so when a clip of this video appeared on Instagram recently, and was highlighted to me by my good Swedish friend Robert Carlsson, I thought it was about time we featured something like this again.

Coastal work can often be a dangerous affair, it doesn’t take much for a machine to end up in a tricky situation, often with devastating and extremely costly consequences.

If a machine becomes bogged in sea sand, without some form of assistance it can very quickly be a case of game over, or likewise if a machine has broken down, it can often be a race against the tide.

In this incident that took place in November 2023, the Kobelco SK500LC excavator was working on a long running groyne replacement scheme, to protect beach erosion on Bournemouth Beach, coincidently not that far away from the section where Dave Vickers, Neil Grainger and myself, were recently filmed doing the You Bet on Tour Digger Challenge, earlier this year.

This was also a project I had visited previously with my Earthmovers Magazine hat on, back in the day when we used to do a bit with Molson, when we went to take a look at a new Hyundai HX520L that had been delivered to site on the first phase. 

The superb full version of this video was taken by MKSMedia and posted on their You Tube channel, so full credit for screenshots and footage goes to them.

The drone footage documents the work involved to get the 50-tonne machine into a position to attach heavy duty strops, and the additional machines that were assembled to assist with the recovery.

A great job done by the team and all the operators involved.