The 40-year-old suffered a heart attack mid-flight on the way to Dunedin Hospital and at the time his stepfather, Bruce Cawley, described his condition as "50:50".
Andrew was dragged 3km out to sea off the north side of the Waitaki River mouth.
Emergency services were alerted to the accident by a whitebaiter on the south side.
Waitaki River was Andrew's favourite whitebaiting spot.
Cawley described his stepson as a down-to-earth man, and said his 2-year-old daughter was the "sparkle of his life".
The incident comes after a whitebaiter in the same area survived after being swept out to sea three weeks earlier.
The man was wearing a lifejacket and made it back to shore unaided.
