Stockton Rush

American businessman who was the co-founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate, a deep-sea exploration company. He died when OceanGate's submersible Titan imploded during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic.

Rush was also a lifelong scuba diving enthusiast, having begun diving at age 12. He became a commercial pilot at age 18 and claimed to have become the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world at age 19 in 1981. Rush married pilot and teacher Wendy Weil in 1986, and they had two children. In 1989, he built a Glasair III experimental aircraft, which he continued to own and fly throughout his life.

After graduation from Princeton University, Rush worked for McDonnell Douglas as a flight test engineer on their F-15 program. He later was a board member for BlueView Technologies and the Museum of Flight. In 2009, he created the company OceanGate with Guillermo Söhnlein, who departed the company in 2013.

On 18 June 2023, Rush died at age 61, along with four others when OceanGate's submersible Titan imploded during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic. A report by the US Coast Guard dated 4 August 2025, found that Rush "exhibited negligence" contributing to the deaths and could have been found criminally liable.