The 14 passengers aboard the overcrowded motorboat that capsized in New York Harbor were celebrating a birthday before it flipped off Liberty Island late Saturday, killing a mom and her infant daughter.
The 22-foot bowrider was chartered with “Zeus Luxury” for passenger Paula Rivera’s surprise 41st birthday on Saturday before the fatal accident unfolded, her daughter, Sara Raez, told The Post.
The group of family and friends boarded the boat at Randall’s Island around 7 p.m. for what was meant to be a memorable sightseeing voyage around the Statue of Liberty.
Just hours later, the boat — which was dangerously overcrowded — capsized, killing 5-month-old Antonella Garcia and her mother, Sara Sanchez, 27, of College Point, Queens.
Raez, 20, who was on board the doomed vessel, described how the boat terrifyingly “flipped over” in just seconds as they were headed back from the Statue of Liberty.
“When we were heading back, we were slow, but out of nowhere, people started screaming because the front of the boat went into the water,” she recalled.
“The water got into the boat. The boat went up, and when it went down — it was in seconds — it flipped over,” she continued.
“Everyone 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.”
Roughly 15 minutes later, the group — some of whom were on top of the capsized boat — unsuccessfully tried to wave a far-away boat over for help, Raez recalled.
Eventually, another “party boat” came to their rescue.
“Then we saw another boat, and we all started screaming, ‘Help, help, help.’ And they started getting close. They started throwing life jackets, and I started swimming towards it,” she said, adding that it was “another party boat.”
Among the survivors pulled out of the water was Andres Garcia, the dead mom’s stricken partner and the baby’s father.
He was later seen weeping in heartwrenching photos as he was rescued.
Follow the latest on the boat crash off Liberty Island in New York Harbor:
“We would just keep screaming, Please help us find them. And then police wouldn’t tell us anything. Then we went to the police, and then we went to the hospital. And we spent the whole night there,” Raez said.
Rivera also claimed that the boating company said “everything” was legal, including the number of people aboard.
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.
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.
The captain, Manuel Hernandez, 46, was slapped with 13 charges of reckless endangerment for operating the ill-fated boat.
Authorities are investigating whether the ill-fated boat was operating as an illegal charter, the Coast Guard said in a press release — adding that such operations “often lack necessary safety equipment and may not meet the same safety standards as legal charters.”
Zeus Luxury boasts itself online as “one of the leading companies in limousine, party bus, and yacht rentals in the tri-state area.”
Zeus Luxury did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Raez also revealed that Sanchez and Garcia have a 6-year-old son, Salvador, who wasn’t on the boat.
It is Salvador’s birthday this week, she said.
A GoFundMe fundraiser for Garcia said the dad is reeling from the “heartbreaking loss.”
Garcia experienced “a loss that no husband or father should ever have to endure,” said the fundraiser to help the grieving dad with funeral expenses.
“He has to figure out how to live without them, it’s a big loss,” Rivera said, noting she was there for Antonella’s birth.
“Nobody is prepared for this to happen,” Raez added.
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