Stockton Rush was the CEO of OceanGate, the company that manufactured the Titan submersible, which was launched on the 18th After an intensive search and rescue mission, the company issued a statement believing that the ship and crew members had been lost. The Coast Guard also offered its condolences to the families after declaring that the passengers were in a “catastrophic implosion” off the bow of the Titanic. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet have unfortunately been lost,” OceanGate said. “This is a very sad time for the entire community of explorers and for every family member of the people who have been lost at sea. We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected at this most painful time.”

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t turned out that Stockton had a connection with the Titanic. Stockton’s wife, Wendy Rush, is descended from a couple who died when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912, according to the New York Times. Wendy’s parents are Isidor Straus and Ida Straus. Wendy’s great-grandfather Richard Weil was married to Minnie Straus, one of the daughters of Ida and Isidor.

In the 1997 film Titanic, a fictional couple was depicted standing in bed while the ship sank. This couple is said to be loosely based on Isidor and Ida. The survivors recalled seeing the couple on the deck of the ship before it sank, according to the NYT.

One of the great-grandchildren of Isidor and Ida spoke about the couple’s titanic experience in an interview in 2017. He said that Ida was on a lifeboat and escaped from the ship, but changed her mind when she noticed that Isidor was not following her. Since Isidor was old and rich, he was allowed to get on the lifeboat, but he allegedly refused. “My great-grandfather said:” No, until I see that all the women and children on board this ship are in a lifeboat, I will not get into a lifeboat myself, ” Isidor’s great-grandson claimed.

Stockton is the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, which owns the submarine. Together with Stockton, there were four other passengers on board the submersible, which disappeared under water during his search for the remains of the Titanic. The oxygen of the submarine was supposed to be released on the morning of August 22.

In June, the Coast Guard confirmed that a debris field had been discovered in the search area. A day earlier, the Department of Homeland Security reported that the crews of the rescue mission heard snapping sounds at intervals of 30 minutes during the search. The submarine was about 13,000 feet underwater when it disappeared.