f.Twenty minutes ago, a rogue killer whale turned billionaire Robert Powell’s luxury yacht into a floating nightmare, leaving the elite world gasping in stunned silence.f
At approximately 3:25 p.m. on August 19, 2025, a sensational headline exploded across social media platforms, claiming, “SAD NEWS: 20 minutes ago, a reliable source broke the sad news that a killer whale attacked billionaire Robert Powell’s yacht, shocking the world.” This shocking claim, which claimed that a pod of killer whales had sunk the yacht of a billionaire named Robert Powell, sparked widespread concern and speculation.
Posts on X amplified the story, with users expressing shock and sharing unverified clips that allegedly captured the attack. However, a thorough investigation, backed by reliable sources, revealed that this was a baseless hoax, confusing a real incident in 2024 involving a British sailor named Robert Powell with a fabricated story about billionaire status and a recent attack. The incident highlights the dangers of misinformation spreading on real events.
The origins of this rumor are unclear, but its sensational setup and lack of verifiable details immediately raised red flags. The article’s headline claimed a “reliable source” and a “billionaire Robert Powell,” but lacked specific information about the yacht, location, or identity of the source. The “20 minutes ago” timestamp is a classic clickbait tactic to create urgency, while the lack of vessel name or exact date further underscored the fragility of the story.
In reality, Robert Powell, a 59-year-old British sailor, was attacked by a killer whale on his yacht, the Bonhomme William, on July 24, 2024, off the coast of Spain, according to The Mirror and Newsweek. The $128,000 vessel was sunk by a pod of five killer whales, but Powell is not a billionaire, and the incident occurred more than a year ago, not in August 2025. No reputable news outlet, including the BBC, Reuters, or The New York Times, reported a new attack in 2025.
The plausibility of this hoax stems from the combination of the 2024 incident and exaggerated details. Powell, an IT company owner from London, described a two-hour incident in which killer whales damaged his yacht’s rudder and rammed into the hull, likening their behavior to “wolf hunting,” according to The US Sun. The incident, which occurred two miles off the southern coast of Spain, was real and widely reported, with the Spanish coast guard rescuing Powell and his crew.
However, the 2025 rumor falsely promoted Powell to billionaire status and claimed it was a recent attack, possibly based on unrelated stories such as the October 2024 death of cryptocurrency billionaire Marcus Hale in a killer whale attack off the coast of Portugal, as reported by bitrue.com. Hale’s case, also unverified by major news outlets, involved a luxury yacht, but there is no evidence to suggest it is related to Powell or the 2025 incident.
The rumor spread on X, with posts like “Billionaire Not Safe From Killer Whales!” and “Yacht Ship Sinking” reflecting public interest in orca attacks on ships, a phenomenon that has been documented since 2020. The International Whaling Commission attributes these incidents to playful behavior by baby orcas, not aggression, as noted in a 2024 USA Today article. This hoax capitalizes on this trend, misrepresenting the nature of killer whales.
