Yesterday just before 3 PM, a chartered powerboat with 12 passengers aboard, capsized in the Hudson River near Pier 86 in Midtown Manhattan.  The accident fatally trapped a 7-year-old boy and 50-year-old woman underneath the overturned boat. Three others were reported to be in critical condition. 

Two NY Waterway ferries were the first on the scene and rescued nine from the river. Both the NYPD and the city’s Fire Department dispatched crews in response to a 911 call at 2:46 PM. The NYPD Harbor Patrol arrived at Pier 86 at West 46th Street where they found the capsized boat and rescued two victims drifting by the boat. Scuba divers dove into the water, bringing out the woman and boy who were declared deceased. 

What happened remains unclear. The NY Post reports that the capsized boat was a 24′ long jet boat, a Yamaha AR240, named Stimulus Money. The blue and white 2020 model jet boat is a high-performance craft that can reach 30 mph in 4.3 seconds and is capable of nearly 52 mph, according to boattest.com.

The boat is reported to have departed on the ill-fated trip from just across the river from Weehawken, New Jersey. In addition to the twelve passengers aboard, the owner of the boat was following behind on a jet ski. 

Time-lapse video of the Manhattan skyline captured the moment a boat capsized in the Hudson River. The video, posted to Twitter by NYC Timescape, shows two vessels side by side jetting through the Hudson River and jumping waves before the boat suddenly capsizes, producing a large splash. 

Inspector Anthony Russo of the Police Department’s Harbor Unit said that a mix of factors, including “a lot of commercial, recreational traffic,” may have contributed to the boat’s capsizing.

“We had the current, the wind, so you could have wakes approaching from different directions, waves from different directions,” he said. “It takes some skill to operate in the Hudson River, so it could’ve been a contributing factor.”