Deon Truter, NSRI Plettenberg Bay station commander, said; “At 13h52 on Wednesday 16 November 2011 NSRI Plettenberg Bay volunteer duty sea rescue crew were activated following reports of a drowning in progress at The Island at Robberg Nature Reserve.
“Our NSRI volunteer duty sea rescue crew launched our sea rescue craft SALLY JOAN and AIRLINK RESCUER and NSRI rescue swimmers responded directly to the scene and Metro EMS were activated.
“A third sea rescue craft, a stand-by craft, was launched accompanied by a Metro EMS paramedic.
“On arrival on-scene a 70 year old female was found to be safely out of the water but showed signs of near drowning symptoms and our medics attended to her on the scene and she was then transferred onto our sea rescue craft, which we had beached at Robberg Nature Reserve, and we brought her safely to our sea rescue base where she was transferred into a Metro EMS ambulance and transported to a local hospital in a stable condition for observation.
“The female, from Austria, Hildegard Weisseneder, had been walking (hiking) with her husband and daughter at Robberg when, it appears, they had crossed a channel at a steep embankment and the casualty got into difficulties in the water. An unidentified bystander (who had reportedly also been hiking on the trail and was there at the time) rescued her from the water but had left the scene before rescuers recorded her details.”
