{"id":317530,"date":"2026-08-10T04:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T04:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317530\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T04:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T04:28:13","slug":"passengers-aboard-doomed-boat-that-flipped-in-new-york-harbor-were-celebrating-a-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317530\/","title":{"rendered":"Passengers aboard doomed boat that flipped in New York Harbor were celebrating a birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 14 passengers aboard the overcrowded motorboat that capsized in New York Harbor<\/a> were celebrating a birthday before it flipped off Liberty Island late Saturday, killing a mom and her infant daughter.<\/p>\n

The 22-foot bowrider was chartered with \u201cZeus Luxury\u201d for passenger Paula Rivera\u2019s surprise 41st birthday on Saturday before the fatal accident unfolded, her daughter, Sara Raez, told The Post.<\/p>\n

Andres Garcia after he was rescued from the capsizing, which left his girlfriend Sara Sanchez and their 5-month-old daughter Antonella Garcia dead. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n

Paula Rivera, 41, her daughter Sara Raez, 20, and husband Alexandre Raez, 44, told The Post Sunday that the doomed voyage was in celebration of Rivera\u2019s birthday. David Burns\/@FD4D<\/p>\n

The overturned 22-foot motor boat is lifted from New York Harbor on Aug. 9, 2026. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

The group of family and friends boarded the boat at Randall\u2019s Island around 7 p.m. for what was meant to be a memorable sightseeing voyage around the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n

Just hours later, the boat \u2014 which was dangerously overcrowded<\/a> \u2014 capsized, killing 5-month-old Antonella Garcia and her mother, Sara Sanchez, 27, of College Point, Queens.<\/p>\n

Raez, 20, who was on board the doomed vessel, described how the boat terrifyingly \u201cflipped over\u201d in just seconds as they were headed back from the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were heading back, we were slow, but out of nowhere, people started screaming because the front of the boat went into the water,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water got into the boat. The boat went up, and when it went down \u2014 it was in seconds \u2014 it flipped over,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was on the bottom of the boat. We were just trying to get out. Then, when finally everyone got out, everyone was screaming, because we were still missing them, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly 15 minutes later, the group \u2014 some of whom were on top of the capsized boat \u2014 unsuccessfully tried to wave a far-away boat over for help, Raez recalled.<\/p>\n

The overturned boat seen at the NYPD Harbor Unit\u2019s Brooklyn base on Aug. 9, 2026. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Eventually, another \u201cparty boat\u201d came to their rescue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we saw another boat, and we all started screaming, \u2018Help, help, help.\u2019\u2029And they started getting close. They started throwing life jackets, and I started swimming towards it,\u201d she said, adding that it was \u201canother party boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the survivors pulled out of the water was Andres Garcia, the dead mom\u2019s stricken boyfriend and the baby\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

He was later seen weeping in heartwrenching photos as he was rescued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow the latest on the boat crash off Liberty Island in New York Harbor:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would just keep screaming, Please help us find them. And then police wouldn\u2019t tell us anything. Then we went to the police, and then we went to the hospital. And we spent the whole night there,\u201d Raez said.<\/p>\n

Rivera also claimed that the boating company said \u201ceverything\u201d was legal, including the number of people aboard.<\/p>\n

The vessel, which features front seating, was packed with 14 people despite a seating capacity of no more than 10, according to online specs and NYPD sources.<\/p>\n

Police officers search for the passengers after the boat capsized. Robert Mecea for NY Post<\/p>\n

The operator also said little Antonella was allowed to join if she wore a life vest, but the rest of the party was not required to wear one, the mom said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The captain, Manuel Hernandez, 46, was slapped with 13 charges of reckless endangerment<\/a> for operating the ill-fated boat.<\/p>\n

Authorities are investigating whether the ill-fated boat was operating as an illegal charter, the Coast Guard said in a press release \u2014 adding that such operations \u201coften lack necessary safety equipment and may not meet the same safety standards as legal charters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeus Luxury boasts itself online as \u201cone of the leading companies in limousine, party bus, and yacht rentals in the tri-state area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The family embraces as they recalled the deadly capsizing of the Zeus Luxury Rental boat. David Burns\/@FD4D<\/p>\n

Zeus Luxury did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe fundraiser for Garcia revealed that he and Sanchez also have a 6-year-old son, Salvador, who is reeling from the \u201cheartbreaking loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia experienced \u201ca loss that no husband or father should ever have to endure,\u201d said the fundraiser to help the grieving dad with funeral expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to figure out how to live without them, it\u2019s a big loss,\u201d Rivera said, noting she was there for Antonella\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is prepared for this to happen,\u201d Raez added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 14 passengers aboard the overcrowded motorboat that capsized in New York Harbor were celebrating a birthday before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8948,1015,57,9,4180,11,10,103,58],"class_list":["post-317530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-boat-crashes","tag-deaths","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-harbor","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nypd","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}