OceanGate co-founder who left in 2019 says regulations around Titanic dives are ‘sparse’ and ‘antiquated’

The co-founder of OceanGate has said regulations around Titanic wreck dives are “sparse” and “antiquated”.

Five people, including the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, died on the Titan submersible after it went missing on Sunday 18 June.

Asked if there is much regulation of submersibles and people’s ability to dive around the wreck, Mr Söhnlein - who left OceanGate in 2019 - suggested it’s “tricky” to navigate regulatory schemes.

“There are regulations in place. But as you can imagine, there aren’t that many subs that go that deep. And so the regulations are pretty sparse,” he told Times Radio.

“And many of them are antiquated, or they’re designed for specific instances. So, so it’s kind of tricky to navigate those regulatory schemes.”