A superyacht owned by Mark Zuckerberg failed to come to the assistance of a small boat that called for help near Alaska last week.

The 21ft motorboat issued a general request for assistance after it ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau on 3 August.

A small cruise ship that was further away than Zuckerberg’s yacht  ended up helping the boat after picking up the call from the coastguard,

Zuckerberg was not on board at the time. His spokesperson said the superyacht didn’t hear the call for help in time because it was using a different radio channel.

A passenger travelling on the Wilderness Legacy, which rescued the boat, said there was “unanimous booing” on board when the captain announced that the billionaire’s $300m 387ft yacht had failed to answer the call for help – despite its proximity to the boat.

“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),” Michael Love wrote on Bluesky.

“Frankly, if I was Mark Zuckerberg I would be absolutely ecstatic at a chance to do something helpful for someone in need and maybe get some good PR out of it.”

A spokesperson for Zuckerberg denied the accusations. In an email to the Alaskan Beacon, which initially reported the incident, they said: “Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident.

“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. We’re grateful all parties are safe.”

The incident has drawn renewed attention to criticisms of the tech billionaire’s extreme wealth.

“I live in Juneau and I’ve been having to look at that excessive eyesore parked up in Auke Bay for too long now,” a local resident wrote on Reddit. “Fuck Zuckerberg.”

From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.