The 23-foot (7 meter) half-cabin cruiser was heavily overcrowded and besides the 5 victims, nine other people were injured. Authorities stated that the boat was designed to hold a maximum of eight people and the fact that there were 14 passengers on board, might have aggravated the incident. All the people on board were teenagers, the oldest ones being in their early 20s.

According to Agence France Presse, Glenn Finniss, a Marine Area Command Police Inspector, explained that a complete investigation will be conducted in order to find out the speed of the boat and also if the navigational lights were in use, as regulation demands it.

Sydney Ship Repair and Engineering Company, the boat’s owner, declared that the boat was not authorized for the trip and nobody knew it was out until this morning.
The managing director, John McPherson, detailed: "Our boats would only go on the harbour at night-time if we were called out to an emergency for one of our clients' vessels and that certainly didn't occur last night," as quoted by BBC News.

The horrible crash reminds of a similar incident which took place in March 2007 in the same Sydney Harbour. At the time, three people died after a passenger vessel collided with another small boat.