After excavator’s tumble into hole, two more and a dozer required for rescue

Updated Sep 4, 2018

Stuck trackhoe Caterpillar excavator According to the YouTube description of the below machine rescue video, during some excavation for a pumping station, a ledge gave way from beneath this excavator, sending it and the operator tumbling into the very deep hole they had just made.

Two other excavators crawl over to lend a hand, attempting for a while to use the teeth on their bucket to, presumably, tilt their fallen friend’s tracks into a position where they have better traction. When that doesn’t work they try to link buckets with the out of commission digger in the hopes of pulling it out.

That doesn’t work either though, so the trapped excavator operator decides to stab the side of the hole with his bucket and attempt to lift himself out. Nope.

Thankfully, after a bit of digging by the trapped machine to give itself more of a level ramp to exit on (probably the idea that should have been tried in the first place), the excavator is finally able to exit with the help of a dozer.