Overview
- A 22-foot recreational boat carrying 14 people flipped near Liberty Island late Saturday, sending all passengers into the water and triggering a large multi-agency rescue effort.
- Twelve people were pulled from the water and treated for minor injuries, while 27-year-old Sara Sanchez and her 5-month-old daughter Antonella Garcia were found in the water, taken to NYU Langone–Brooklyn and later died.
- The vessel’s operator, Manuel Hernandez, 46, was arrested by the NYPD on 13 reckless-endangerment counts and later transferred to federal custody where he was charged with two counts of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer resulting in death.
- Hernandez was released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond with conditions that bar him from operating boats and require surrender of travel documents as investigators continue examining cause and culpability.
- The Coast Guard, its investigative service and the NYPD are probing whether the trip was an illegal charter and whether overcapacity, missing credentials or inadequate safety gear played a role, a line of inquiry that could lead to federal penalties and stricter enforcement on small passenger trips.