Submersible pilot’s spouse is a descendant of a famous couple who died on the Titanic

As rescuers race against time to save those on board the Titanic submersible, new details have emerged about one of its passengers.

The sub - called the Titan - vanished on Sunday (18 June) off the coast of Newfoundland while touring the wreckage of the Titanic, with five crew confirmed to be on board. The vessel is said to have just hours left of its oxygen supply.

Those onboard include OceanGate’s CEO and pilot of the vessel, Stockton Rush, who shares a strange connection to the Titanic ship, a report has revealed.

According to The New York Times, the businessman’s wife is a direct descendant of two people killed during the Titanic disaster.

Wendy Rush is the great-great-grandchild of Titanic passengers Isidor and Ida Straus, who inspired part of James Cameron’s classic film.

The first-class passengers famously went down with the ship, after Isidor refused to take a seat on the lifeboat while women and children were still waiting to escape.

Tragically, his wife Ida would not leave her beloved husband and they were seen standing arm-in-arm on the deck as the Titanic slipped beneath the waves.

One of the wealthiest people on board the Titanic, Isidor had been one of the co-owners of Macy’s department store – allowing him to buy tickets on the ill-fated ship.

Their story was later used in the classic 1997 romance film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Wikimedia Commons

While the couple are not named in the movie, director Cameron used a shot of an older couple hugging in bed to represent the couple – even showing the Atlantic waters rising around them.

Isidor’s body was found at sea only a few weeks after the disaster, but Ida was never recovered – even after the Titanic wreckage was discovered in 1985.

Its final resting place is roughly 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, with the 1912 tragedy killing 1,5000 people on board.

Most of these were lower-class individuals – who were unable to escape due to a lack of lifeboats.

OceanGate

Over a century later, Wendy’s husband, Rush, is among those still missing onboard the tourist submersible, which had been visiting the wrecked ship.

British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman. and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet are also among the missing.

Rush founded OceanGate back in 2009, in what is one of very few companies in the world that runs commercial voyages down to the Titanic.

There has been no sign of the missing sub since Sunday morning.