Late in the afternoon on 19 February, Rotrex Winches was contacted by our customer to attend site urgently and carry out inspections and tests of winches and associated lifting equipment onboard a salvage vessel.

The company had been awarded the job to lift the Super Puma helicopter that crashed in the North Sea.

A quick response by the Rotrex engineers allowed the vessel to sail through the night and arrive at the crash site the following morning before the helicopter had a chance to sink.

The vessel managed to manoeuvre the stricken helicopter away from the oil rig and used the hydraulic deck winches and lifting strops to lift it on to the back of the boat, to enable it to be returned to Aberdeen for accident investigators to determine the cause of the crash.

This is just another example of Rotrex engineers going that extra mile to help the customer.

Rotrex Winches’ team of service engineers based in Alfreton, Glasgow and London are all responsive, experienced and resourceful in the face of problems customers are having with winches and associated equipment. Not only will Rotrex Winches’ service engineers attend site to support equipment on hire, but they will also inspect, repair and test customer’s own equipment.

Backed by the Alfreton ‘Centre of Excellence’ winch workshop, where major maintenance and repairs are usually carried out, the service engineers have the most common spare parts and tools ready to hand in their vans.