'I nearly died on yacht with influencers who refused life jackets to avoid ruining selfies'

Survivors have shared the terrifying moment they threw themselves onto the rocks after their capsized.

Two influencers tragically drowned after an overloaded boat sank off the coast of last month. Victims, Aline Tamara Moreira de Amorim, 37, and Beatriz Tavares da Silva Faria, 27, the boat and they were submerged by the water.

Beatriz's body was found first drifting out to sea and was recovered by Brazil's Maritime Firefighters, while Aline was found dead a week later, washed up on the coast of Itaquitanduva Beach. Local police are now trying to establish if their deaths were a tragic accident or could have been prevented.

READ MORE:

One of the survivors, Vanessa Audrey da Silva, recalled the horror moment the boat capsized on September 29. She told local media that a group of friends and influencers had met up to party on a luxury yacht and spent the day cruising and drinking.

They later split into two groups to get back to shore, but one was swamped by a wave on the return journey. Vanessa said she managed to scramble into a life jacket and survived by clinging to rocks. She said: "There was a moment in the water when no one could see anyone. I was fighting for life."

Another survivor, Camila Alves de Carvalho, says she clutched a life jacket in her hands and clung on for dear life. She said: "There were very strong waves, we almost died. We didn't know how to swim. I knew that I couldn't take it for long. I hurt my foot and swallowed a lot of water. We threw ourselves into the rocks."

Now a month on from their deaths, Sao Vincente police commissioner Marcos Alexandre Alfino says the had refused to wear life jackets. He said: "Some didn't want to put them on because they were taking selfies. They said that they get in the way of their tanning."

The boat's skipper, not named by police, gave extensive interviews after the tragedy and revealed he had been ordered to take six influencers to the shore, despite his boat having a maximum capacity of five passengers. So when the craft was hit by a huge wave, it was too heavy to ride it out and began to sink.

The skipper told police he had tried desperately to save everyone. Commissioner Alfino explained: "All this is being determined very calmly to conclude if the fatalities were based on recklessness or negligence."

Heartbreakingly, mother-of-one Aline, who could not swim, posted her last social media image hours before she died, as she posed on the boat in a bikini. Among those who survived was Daniel Goncalves Ferreira, Gabriela Santos Lima and Natan Cardoso Soares da Silva.

READ MORE: