- Stockton Rush's wife, Wendy, was OceanGate's "No. 2," a former Polar Prince passenger said.
- Arnie Weissmann said that she was part of the team that tracked the Titan sub's location on dives.
Wendy Rush, the wife of Stockton Rush, OceanGate's CEO, was effectively the company's second-in-command, according to a former passenger on the Titan sub's support ship, the Polar Prince.
Her official title was director of communications, but Arnie Weissmann, the editor in chief of Travel Weekly, told Insider that Wendy Rush also played a key part in the expeditions.
Weissmann spent eight days on the Polar Prince in May and said there were multiple meetings a day on the support ship to discuss operations.
OceanGate eventually canceled his dive to the Titanic wreck due to bad weather, but Weissmann was able to spend time with Stockton and Wendy Rush on the Polar Prince, which he said had a crew of about 14. The team included Kyle Bingham, the operations manager of OceanGate, and a photographer and a videographer.
Those on the Polar Prince would have breakfast between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. each day before going to an all-hands meeting. Missions specialists were instructed to join, and Stockton Rush would go through a "long list of to-do items."
"She took part in the meetings and you got the sense that she was No. 2," Weissmann said.
The journalist added that Stockton Rush was the "driver of the operation" at OceanGate. But he also said that Wendy Rush was "in a support role. He ran the meetings, but Wendy would be the one who would most likely chirp in if there was something more to add, or if she felt his statement wasn't correct."
Weissmann said he saw a video from a previous expedition where Wendy Rush was "part of the team that was in communication with the sub" on a dive, helping track its location.
Aaron Newman, who visited the Titanic wreck on the Titan in August 2021, told Fox Business that Wendy Rush was always "looking over his shoulder" to ensure operations were safe, although Weissmann says he "didn't get that feeling."
Wendy Rush is a descendant of two famous Titanic victims, The New York Times reported last month. Stockton and Wendy both attended Princeton University, graduated in 1984, and got married two years later.
Before it was taken offline, Wendy Rush's LinkedIn profile said she was OceanGate's communications director and an expedition-team member.
An OceanGate representative told Insider the company was "unable to comment."