Stockton Rush is the founder of the company that organised the expedition to explore the wreck of the Titanic and was on board the submarine Titan when it disappeared around 370 miles east of the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 61-year-old businessman founded OceanGate in 2009 to provide crewed submersibles for charter and scientific research. He claims to have been the youngest jet transport rated pilot ever at 19 years old and began working life flying around the world for United Airlines, later working for McDonell Douglas.
Her was on board the missing vessel, named Titan, as its pilot when it lost communication with tour operators on Sunday, June 18, while about 435 miles south of St John's in Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada. Also on board the Titanic sub is the British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding as well as UK-based businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, and OceanGate's chief executive and founder Stockton Rush, reportedly with French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Rush's wife Wendy is said to be a descendant of two Titanic victims, according to a report. Wendy Rush is the communication director of OceanGate, while her husband Stockton Rush is the chief executive of the company.
According to The New York Times, Wendy is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, who were said to be one of the richest families to board the Titanic ship.
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The Titanic wreckage is about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland island, Canada in the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship's resting place is on the ocean floor approximately 12,500 feet - or 3,800m, below the surface.
The ship sank in April 1912, killing approximately 1,500 people on board, including Mr and Mrs Straus. The New York Times reports that Mr Isidor Straus was born in 1845 and was a co-owner of Macy's department store in New York city.
First-class passenger Isidor Straus refused to take a seat on a lifeboat when women and children were still waiting to get off the sinking ship. Unwilling to leave her husband's side, his wife Ida joined him and also refused to take a seat on a lifeboat. According to the Times report, the couple were seen standing arm-in-arm on the deck of the liner when it went down.
According to the paper's archives, Isidor's body was later found at sea several weeks after the Titanic sank, but Ida's remains were never discovered. The wreckage itself was discovered in 1985. In the hit 1997 Hollywood film Titanic, director James Cameron created a fictionalised scene of the Straus couples before their death, in which the couple embrace one and other in bed as the water rises in their cabin.
Wendy Rush, born Wendy Hollings Weil, married engineer and entrepreneur Stockton Rush in 1986. She is descended from Isidor and Ida Straus's daughter Minnie, who married Dr. Richard Weil in 1905.
Their son, Richard Weil Jr., later served as president of Macy's New York. His son, Dr. Richard Weil III, is Wendy Rush's father, The New York Times reported.
Stockton Rush founded the company, OceanGate, in 2009. His wife, Wendy, has visited the Titanic wreckage three times with her husband's company in the last two years, it has been reported.
On Thursday, it was announced that rescuers would be searching an area 2.5-miles below the surface of the sea. The temperatures are freezing cold and it is too deep for light to penetrate. In these pitch black conditions, it is easy to hit the ocean floor suddenly as subs have only a limited field of vision from their lights.
But more deep-sea equipment have joined the hunt for the missing sub. Ten extra ships and several remote submarines were said to be joining the search on Thursday, which will more than double operations. The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is currently at Jersey Airport and is due to be flown to the search site later today. The ROV, which is called Juliet, scanned the Titanic wreck last summer. It spent 200 hours surveying the site and produced impressive 3D scans of the wreckage and debris field.
