Federal prosecutors on Monday charged the captain in a boat accident that killed a mother and daughter near Liberty Island over the weekend, as questions have emerged about the tour company’s safety history.
The captain, Manuel Hernandez, 46, faces two counts of misconduct and neglect of a ship officer resulting in death, according to a criminal complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Federal investigators are focusing on what went wrong on Saturday night when the Yamaha AR210 boat Mr. Hernandez was piloting capsized shortly after 10 p.m. A 27-year-old woman, Sara Sanchez, and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella, died.
As that investigation unfolds, details have surfaced about the safety record of the tour operator, Zeus Luxury Rental. The Queens-based company was also the operator of a boat that burst into flames in July 2025, forcing more than 20 passengers to jump overboard, according to the Bronx district attorney’s office. The pilot of that boat was arrested and is facing criminal charges.
The federal complaint says that a tour operator hired Mr. Hernandez to lead the group on Saturday and includes a screenshot of a promotional offer from the company. Federal prosecutors did not name the company, but the advertisement matched one that Zeus Luxury Rental had used to promote boat tours. The firm “brands itself as a luxury provider of limousine and rental yacht services,” the complaint says.
The person who paid for the tour, Alexander Reyes, said he had booked the charter with Zeus Luxury Rental as a birthday surprise for his wife.
Zeus Luxury didn’t immediately return calls or text messages for comment.
The vessel that capsized on Saturday was carrying 14 people, which exceeded its maximum allowable capacity of 10, according to the complaint, which was signed by Mauro Desa, a special agent with the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service.
The complaint says Mr. Hernandez operated the boat knowing that the 5-month-old girl was not wearing a personal flotation device, and that there was no such child- or infant-size device aboard.
After he was taken into custody, Mr. Hernandez was advised of his rights, and under questioning by the New York Police Department and the Coast Guard, he said he was piloting a vessel owned by a friend because his own boat required mechanical repairs, the complaint says.
It also says he did not have the proper Coast Guard credential to operate the vessel with paying customers on board.
Mr. Hernandez was taken before a federal magistrate judge on Monday afternoon, appearing in a gray Hurley T-shirt, white swimming trunks and a pair of nonslip water shoes. He sat quietly, with his hands clasped in his lap and his eyes focused in front of him as the judge, Valerie Figueredo, read out his charges.
She ordered him released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond, and neither Mr. Hernandez nor his lawyer would comment after the hearing.
Jamie McDonald, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Mr. Hernandez flouted federal regulations and maritime safety protocols that exist to protect passengers’ lives and well-being on commercial vessels.
Josh Packer, assistant director in charge of the Coast Guard Investigative Service, added, “Illegal charter operations gamble with human life, and in this case, the alleged conduct led to an unthinkable tragedy.”
In the 2025 incident near the Bronx, the crew of a fire boat rescued a woman who was drowning after she leaped off that party boat, which had been chartered for a family birthday, prosecutors said. A man fell into the fire and suffered second- and third-degree burns that required skin grafts, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors in the Bronx brought several charges of assault and reckless endangerment against the boat’s pilot, Joshua Brito, who they said had been drinking while driving the boat without a captain’s license.
At the time of Mr. Brito’s arraignment, Darcel D. Clark, the Bronx district attorney, said: “Thankfully no one was killed when the vessel burst into flames and passengers jumped into the water, but a woman nearly drowned, and a man suffered serious burns. The defendant put his passengers at risk when he drank alcohol alongside them as he piloted the boat.”
Mr. Brito, a Bronx resident, pleaded not guilty to the charges in September.
Loriann Garcia, the woman who nearly drowned last summer, sued Mr. Brito, Zeus Luxury and its owners in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in March. Her lawyer, Rose M. Day, said that Ms. Garcia first heard of Zeus Luxury Rental from its TikTok account, which had given her the impression that the company had a fleet of yachts available for charter.
Wesley Parnell contributed reporting.