A 27-year-old mother and her 5-month-old daughter were killed Saturday night when a speedboat carrying 14 people overturned and capsized in the water near Liberty Island in New York, authorities said.
The New York Post later confirmed the identities of the two victims as Sara Sanchez, 27, and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia. Both were pronounced dead at a hospital after being pulled from the water. The infant’s father was also aboard the vessel at the time it went over.
The boat, a 2019 white 21-foot Yamaha motorboat, flipped just before 10:30 p.m., according to police and law-enforcement sources. The captain of the vessel, 46-year-old Manuel Hernandez, was arrested and charged with at least 13 counts of reckless endangerment. Investigators have indicated he could face additional charges as the case continues.
**A Frantic Rescue in Dark Water**
For those who were pulled from the harbor and for the people waiting on the dock, the minutes after the capsizing were chaotic. NYPD rescue teams responded by boat and began ferrying people back to shore as quickly as they could reach them.
One survivor described the scene to ABC, recalling the moment word spread among those gathered that a mother and an infant were still unaccounted for in the water.
“People were just speaking that there was a mother and a child that needed to be rescued from the water, and that they were found,” she said. “By that time, I was already here, seeing the boats just flying out, coming in, back and forth, and that’s when the rescue happened with the mother and the child.”
Sanchez and her daughter were recovered from the water and taken to a hospital, where both were pronounced dead.
The waters around Liberty Island sit in one of the busiest and most heavily trafficked stretches of New York Harbor, an area that draws sightseeing traffic well into the night and where currents, wakes from larger vessels and darkness can complicate both boating and rescue efforts.
**Questions About an Overloaded Boat — and Whether It Was a Legal Charter**
Much of the early scrutiny has centered on how many people were aboard.
The boat was carrying 14 passengers despite a seating capacity of no more than 10, according to online specifications for the model and NYPD sources. The vessel, which features front seating, was in other words carrying several people beyond what the manufacturer’s listed capacity allows.
A well-placed source went further, saying that experienced captains would know the AR210’s typical 10-passenger capacity would itself be too much for boating in the harbor, and that the boat is more suited to carrying no more than five passengers given the conditions.
Separately, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a press release that authorities are investigating whether the boat was operating as an illegal charter — that is, whether passengers were being carried for hire without the licensing and inspection requirements that legally operated charter vessels must meet.
Illegal charter operations “often lack necessary safety equipment and may not meet the same safety standards as legal charters,” the Coast Guard said in its release.
That distinction matters. Legal charter operators are subject to rules covering everything from the number of passengers a vessel may carry to the licensing of the person at the helm and the safety gear that must be aboard and accessible. When a boat operates outside that framework, passengers frequently have no way of knowing what protections are — or are not — in place before they step aboard.
The Coast Guard did not announce a conclusion on the charter question, and the investigation into how the boat came to be carrying 14 people remains open.
**The Charges and What Comes Next**
Hernandez, whose last known address was a condominium building off Central Park South, was charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment after the boat he was operating flipped, according to police and law-enforcement sources.
Reckless endangerment charges generally allege that a person’s conduct created a substantial risk of serious injury to others. In this case, the number of counts corresponds closely to the number of people who were aboard the vessel besides the operator.
Authorities have said Hernandez could face additional charges as the investigation continues. Investigators are expected to examine the circumstances of the capsizing itself, the number of passengers relative to the vessel’s rated capacity, the conditions on the water at the time, and the still-unresolved question of whether the trip was being run as an unlicensed charter.
No cause for the capsizing has been publicly confirmed.
For families who take to New York’s waterways in the warm months — often on boats booked informally, sometimes through social media or word of mouth — the case has renewed longstanding warnings from the Coast Guard about verifying that an operator is properly licensed and that a vessel is legally permitted to carry paying passengers. Regulators have for years cautioned that unlicensed charters can look indistinguishable from legitimate ones to the average passenger.
For now, the human toll of the case is what stands out most plainly. A young mother and her infant daughter were killed on a summer night in one of the most recognizable stretches of water in the country, within sight of Liberty Island, while surrounded by more than a dozen other people who made it back to the dock alive.
The investigation remains ongoing, and additional details are expected to be released as authorities complete their review.