On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Justin Baugh wrote:

Errr...I thought the thing had to _drown_ in the pool?  We see Asuka's
Eva unit at the bottom of a lake in EoE, unpowered, and the Eva unit
is not "dead".  In fact, when she jumps up and proceeds to kick ass,
it's most definitely not drowned. :)

Akane "drowned" in the Akanenichuan but didn't die.

(And to the person who said that the Eva is a hunk of metal, no it's not,
though a full explanation would be a spoiler.)