Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush in 2009, left the company in 2013, retaining a minority stake.
Rush was piloting the Titan submersible on the trip that began on Sunday.
He was very keenly aware of the risks of operating in the deep ocean environment, and he was very committed to safety," Söhnlein told Reuters.
Questions about Titan's safety were raised in 2018 during a symposium of submersible industry experts and in a lawsuit by OceanGate's former head of marine operations, which was settled later that year.
The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken SS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, dives in an undated photograph.
Persons:
Guillermo Söhnlein, Rush, Stockton, I'd, Söhnlein, OceanGate's, OceanGate, let's, David Latona, Aislinn Laing, Edmund Blair
Organizations:
OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, Reuters, REUTERS, American Bureau of Shipping, Thomson
Locations:
MADRID, Barcelona, Newfoundland