Deep-sea thrill-seeker Stockton Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 to advance submersible vehicle technology and take travellers into the darkest depths of the ocean.
Described by Smithsonian Magazine as a "daredevil inventor", Rush pushed the envelope of underwater exploration and complained about strict rules he said were holding the industry back.
"It's obscenely safe because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn't innovated or grown - because they have all these regulations," Rush told the magazine in 2019.
In an attempt to raise his company's profile, Rush began in 2021 to take paying customers to the iconic wreck of the Titanic on his specially built vessel.
During such a mission on 18 June 2023, the submersible - with Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood and Dawood's son Suleman, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet on board - went missing, losing contact with the surface ship less than two hours after it began its descent.
Late on Wednesday, rescuers had but hours to find the missing Titanic submersible in the remote North Atlanti, but no sign of them has been found.
As the search continued, those who've previously experienced being on one such expedition have come forward.
On Thursday, a US Coast Guard official announced at a press conference that the five people aboard the missing submersible died in what appears to have been a "catastrophic implosion".
"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans," OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement.
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