The company that developed and operated the doomed Titan submersible asked its employees to forego paychecks as it faced economic challenges, according to witnesses testifying before the US Coast Guard body probing the vessel’s deadly implosion last year.

Guillermo Sohnlein, the OceanGate co-founder, will testify before the US Coast Guard in relation to the Titan submersible tragedy.

Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Stockton Rush, told a Coast Guard panel on Monday that "this can't be the end of deep ocean exploration."