A yacht owned by Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg failed to respond to a United States Coast Guard call for assistance after a nearby boat ran out of fuel off the coast of Alaska, because its crew did not hear the request in time, a spokesperson has said. Zuckerberg was not on board at the time, the spokesperson confirmed on Sunday.

The incident drew public attention after Michael Love, a passenger aboard a small cruise ship called the Wilderness Legacy, described it in a Bluesky post last week. Love said he was on an Alaska cruise with his son when the vessel's crew responded to the stranded boat. According to the Alaska Beacon, the skiff had put out a call for help via the Coast Guard, and the Wilderness Legacy towed it into Farragut Bay for refuelling. Zuckerberg's yacht, Launchpad, was reportedly closer but did not answer the call.

Love said passengers erupted in "near-unanimous booing" when the ship's captain announced what had happened. "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," Love said.

Under maritime law, crews are generally obligated to respond to a distress call unless doing so would place their own vessel at risk. However, Zuckerberg's spokesperson noted that the Coast Guard had determined the skiff was not in distress. The spokesperson added that the Coast Guard's contact had gone out on a different radio channel than the one the crew was monitoring, and that by the time the crew reviewed it, the Wilderness Legacy's assistance was already under way. All parties involved were reported safe.