A key employee with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic pushed back at a question from a Coast Guard investigator about whether OceanGate felt a sense of “desperation” to complete the dives because of the high price tag.

“Not a desperation, there definitely was an urgency to delivery on what we had offered and a dedication and perseverance towards that goal,” said Amber Bay, director of administration for the company that owned the doomed Titan submersible. She insisted the company would not “conduct dives that would be risky just to meet a need.”