Created: 08/28/2022, 5:50 p.m
Of: Andrea Graepel, Peter Schiebel
Split
A 16-year-old non-swimmer died in a swimming accident in Lake Ammer near Eching. She fell off a stand-up board in deep water on Friday night and drowned. A special diving service found her body on Sunday afternoon.
Update 5:50 p.m.:
Eching – It’s a sad fact, the girl who fell off the stand up paddle board drowned. Without a leash (safety line) and without life jackets, around 6 p.m. on Friday evening, a 16-year-old and her 15-year-old sister from Buchloe (Ostallgäu district) were only about 250 meters from the Echinger Ufer with a stand-up board and tragically into the water fell, because both could not swim. Another stand-up paddler initially thought the girls were splashing water at each other for fun, until noticing the 16-year-old was struggling to survive in the water being whipped up by her arms. He jumped off his board himself and gave it a powerful push to slide it towards the girls for them to hold on to. Their board was no longer available to them. While the younger sister managed to hold on, help for the 16-year-old came too late.
The search for the girl began immediately, because the events had not gone unnoticed from the shore. The Eching, Buch, Dießen and Utting water rescue services were at the scene of the accident with the first boats just a few minutes later, reports Maurizio Kaiser, head of operations at the Landsberg district water rescue service. The accident site was immediately searched until divers from Grafrath, Schondorf, Seefeld, Fürstenfeldbruck and even from Tutzing and Possenhofen took over the further search. At the same time, two helicopters were in action, one from the police and one from Reutte (Tyrol), because the helicopters stationed closer were being used in other accidents at the same time. In addition, drones, also from the DLRG Pöcking-Starnberg, and the sonar device of the Buch water rescue service were used. In total, according to Kaiser, around 70 rescue workers and police were on duty – coordinated by four operations managers in the areas of air, boats, divers and provision.
The search area, which could be narrowed down well thanks to a tracking app that the other stand-up paddler had with him and made available, was searched extensively. Without success. With the onset of darkness and because of an approaching thunderstorm, the search had to be stopped. Underwater drone and sonar could not do anything on Saturday either. On Sunday, divers from a special company were deployed.
“The problem was that the girls fell into the water almost directly at the edge, where the lake gets deeper,” explains Kaiser. While the rescuers from the air could only see the ground a few meters further at a depth of about five meters, they could not see anything at a depth of 15 meters. “It’s just black,” says Kaiser. As time went on, the search area was also extended to include the shallow water area, since a northerly or westerly wind had set in between and created a current.
On Sunday, the rescuers ashore were now waiting for the response from the diving service. And their parents were waiting with them on the shore, accompanied by a crisis intervention team. They desperately followed the accident on Friday from the shore, Kaiser said. But they couldn’t intervene because they can’t swim either. The body was found around noon and the fear became a sad certainty. The police took over the investigation.
First report:
Innings/Eching – A 16-year-old has been missing on Lake Ammer since Friday evening. This is reported by the Diessen Police Inspectorate. The teenager had gone onto the lake near Eching with a stand-up paddle board and fell into the water. “However, the rescue and search measures carried out immediately afterwards were unsuccessful on Friday,” said the police.
Search for missing persons on Lake Ammer: 16-year-old SUP driver fell into the water
A total of around 70 police, fire brigade, rescue services and lifeguards were on site on Friday. In addition to a drone, divers and a police helicopter, the Diessen police boat with a thermal imaging camera was also used in a targeted manner. The search continued on Saturday. The Buch water rescue service writes on its Facebook page: “We searched the area in question again with our new, donation-financed sonar device. Conspicuous spots were checked by the Eching am Ammersee water rescue service using an underwater drone. Unfortunately, today’s search was also unsuccessful.”
After a long search in the Ammersee, the district water rescue service assumes that the young woman drowned
The district water rescue service in Landsberg posted on Friday evening that the young woman had drowned. “People who observed the emergency from land immediately alerted the rescue services. A few minutes later, the lifeguard units launched an intensive search involving several boats, divers and lifeguards. The area was also searched with drones and two helicopters. Unfortunately, the search had to be called off around 8:30 p.m. without success.”
In addition to the Ammersee water rescue units, rapid water rescue teams from the districts of Starnberg and Fürstenfeldbruck, as well as the rescue service and the fire brigade, were also deployed. “Our thoughts and our sympathy are with the relatives and friends of the victims.”
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