OceanGate, a private company based in Everett, Wash.

, organizes expeditions that can last up to

nine days to travel to shipwrecks and underwater canyons.

According to the company’s website, OceanGate also provides crewed submersibles for
commercial projects and scientific research.

Mr. Rush, an aerospace engineer and pilot, co-founded the company in 2009.

OceanGate called the Titan the only crewed submersible in the world that can take five people as
deep as 4,000 meters — more than 13,100 feet — below the surface of the ocean.

The company has taken people on tours of the Titanic site since 2021, and guests have paid
$250,000 to travel to the wreckage.

In 2018, leaders in the submersible craft industry were so worried about what they called the
“experimental” approach of OceanGate that more than three dozen of them signed a letter to the
company, obtained by The New York Times. They warned of possible “catastrophic” problems
with the submersible’s development and the planned voyage to the Titanic wreckage.