At least three people died and one person was still missing after a boat they were in capsized in the frigid waters of the Ambrose Channel near Staten Island on Sunday, officials said.
One passenger was in critical condition, the police said, and another passenger was in stable condition. One person was still missing in the water, according to a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, Petty Officer Second Class Sydney Phoenix.
Emergency operators received a call about a boat taking on water a little after noon on Sunday, according to a Coast Guard news release. It wasn’t immediately known how it overturned or what kind of boat it was.
The Coast Guard believes the missing person is in the water about five miles southeast of Breezy Point, N.Y.
Two of the five people who were in the boat were airlifted to Staten Island University Hospital and three others were taken to the Coast Guard station in Sandy Hook, N.J.
Four of the five people pulled from the water were unresponsive, according to the Coast Guard. A police spokesman said three of those on board had died.
New York City’s fire and police departments are investigating with the U.S. Coast Guard.
The water temperature near the Battery in Manhattan was 36 degrees on Sunday afternoon, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Ambrose Channel runs between Brooklyn and Staten Island and extends into the Atlantic Ocean. It is the main shipping channel in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
