The dead, 7-year-old Julian Vasquez and 47-year-old Lindelia Vasquez, were part of a group of family members who got onto the jet boat named Stimulus Money in Elizabeth, N.J. Tuesday afternoon for a trip on the Hudson River.
11 other family members, all from Colombia, were injured, at least six women and three men.
They range in age from 19 to 53 years old.
The 24-year-old boat captain, who was licensed and is from Elizabeth, was also hurt.
Along with those who were killed, four occupants of the boat were taken to Mount Sinai West with non-life-threatening injuries.
The victims were staying with their larger family at a hotel in Elizabeth, N.J.
“This is a devastating moment for them and those who are part of the families that were there and as new Yorkers our heart goes out,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.
The 27-foot Yamaha vessel overturned near the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum for unknown reasons, although investigators suspect it got caught in the wake of a passing boat.
The boat’s owner was following behind the craft on a jet ski.
According to the FDNY, marine and land units responded to the Hudson River off of West 46th Street and Pier 84 in Midtown Manhattan just after 2:45 p.m.
Officials say the 7-year-old boy and 47-year-old woman died after getting trapped underneath the boat.
“Obviously anytime it’s a child, it changes maybe your emotional state, but you just do what you have to do, and you train for this that’s what we’re here to do,” FDNY firefighter Ryan Warnock said.
Warnock found the 7-year-old boy and rescue medics tried everything, but by the time he got to the hospital, it was too late for him and the woman who had also been trapped.
The outcome of the boating tragedy could have been far worse had it not been for the swift response by a New York ferry service that happened to be passing by at that moment.
In a statement, the operator of New York Waterway Ferry said two of its ferries responded. Its crews rescued nine people who had been on the boat.
“We kicked in and did what we had to do, we put on our life jackets, flipped the boat and flipped the adjacent cradle down and started pulling the passengers out,” a New York Waterway Ferry employee said.
An eyewitness saw the incident unfold aboard one of the ferries.
“We went on the boat ferry, and we saw a boat capsized, everyone on the boat and they were screaming – so the ferry stopped, and they threw out life vest and then we pulled them up one by one,” Marsow said.
Aboard the ferry were some of the same crew members who rescued passengers from U.S. Airways Flight 1549, also known as the ‘Miracle on the Hudson,’ which crash landed in the Hudson River more than a decade ago.
Divers lifted the boat from the Hudson River Monday night.
Investigators are looking into how many people were onboard and at their cumulative weight.
They say it’s too soon to know what went wrong.
“We had the current the wind so you could have wakes approaching from different directions, waves from different directions,” NYPD Harbor inspector Anthony Russo said. “The Hudson River’s always a dangerous place to operate.”
ALSO READ | 3 teens killed, 1 critical after Staten Island crash
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