The crew on Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht didn’t hear a call for assistance from a nearby ship that had run out of fuel off the coast of Alaska, a spokesperson for the Meta CEO told CBS News.
By the time Zuckerberg’s yacht received the call, the ship in need of help had already received assistance from another vessel, the spokesperson said.
The issue surfaced in a report in the Alaska Beacon, an independent news publication covering the state, which said in an Aug. 8 article that the call for assistance came from a 21-foot skiff that ran out of fuel between the fishing community of Petersburg and the city of Juneau.
The ship that came to the skiff’s assistance was a cruise ship called the Wilderness Legacy, which towed it to Farragut Bay, according to the Alaska Beacon.
In an Aug. 5 social media post, a passenger on the Wilderness Legacy wrote that the captain had announced that Zuckerberg’s yacht hadn’t answered the radio call for help, even though it was closer than the cruise ship that ultimately assisted.
“I’m on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son; our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht – which was closer – and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this),” the passenger, Michael Love, wrote.
Zuckerberg’s spokesperson said that the Meta founder’s yacht, called the Launchpad, was on a different radio channel and hadn’t heard the call. The spokesperson added that the billionaire and his family weren’t on the ship at the time.
“As the Coast Guard noted, the boat was not in distress, and by the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway,” the Meta spokesperson said. “We’re grateful all parties are safe.”
Zuckerberg’s 387-foot yacht, which can host up to 24 guests, was built in 2024 at an estimated cost of $300 million, according to YachtWorld.