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The US Coast Guard has revealed new footage of the wreckage of the Titan submersible that imploded below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean last year, killing five people.

The vision was released as the USCG opened a second week of hearings investigating the deadly incident involving the OceanGate sub.

Meanwhile, the co-founder of the company said he hoped the silver lining of the disaster would be that it inspires a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world's oceans.

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"This can't be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can't be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don't believe that it will be," said businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Stockton Rush.

Sohnlein ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster in June 2023. Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded. Though Sohnlein left the Washington company years ago, he spoke in defence of its efforts in the aftermath of the submersible's implosion.

On Monday local time, he testified that the company wanted to create a fleet of four or five deep-diving submersibles capable of carrying five people to 6km deep. The plan for the company was to have no dedicated mothership — which would've lowered costs substantially, he said.

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"We wanted to give humanity greater access to the ocean, specifically the deep ocean," Sohnlein said.

Sohnlein testified that the company zeroed in on the use of carbon fibre for the doomed vessel because the company wanted a lightweight, less costly submersible that did not need to be tethered to a specific mother ship. He testified that the use of carbon fibre as "not a novel idea" and said "people have looked at that before".

No existing submersible builders could meet the company's requirements, necessitating the pivot to building its own subs, Sohnlein said. And he said the company worked closely with the Coast Guard during development.

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Sohnlein said he had the opportunity to dive in Titan "many times" and he declined. He said his reasons included not wanting to take space away from potential customers. He said when Rush reached a point when it was "time to put a human in there," he wanted to do it himself. Rush felt it was his design and said "if anything happens, I want it to impact me," Sohnlein said.

The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.

Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. "The whole idea behind the company was to make money," Lochridge testified. "There was very little in the way of science."

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Sohnlein said Monday that neither he nor Rush was ever "driven by tourism" and the idea of visiting the Titanic, which had already been explored by others, was not exciting to either of them.

But Lochridge and other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

Phil Brooks, a former OceanGate engineering director who testified Monday, said economic issues with the company included that it was asking workers to forego paychecks for periods of time with the promises that they would be caught up in the future. The financial problems with the company seemed to affect safety decisions, he said.

"It was clear that the company was economically very stressed and as a result that they were making decisions and doing things that resulted in, I felt, that the safety was just being compromised way too much," he said.

An earlier engineering director with the company testified last week that he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years earlier. Tony Nissen said Rush could be difficult to work for and was often very concerned with costs and project schedules.

Sohlein also testified Monday that he left the company in 2013 as the company transitioned to engineering, which he described as a bigger strength of Rush's than his. He said it was a "fairly easy decision" for Rush to take over the company, but it was more difficult to decide whether to stay on at all.

The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include more witnesses. Roy Thomas of the American Bureau of Shipping also testified Monday and detailed the challenges associated with carbon fiber as a material for submersibles. He said carbon fibre is "susceptible to fatigue failure under repeated external pressurisation."

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan's unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible's final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan's depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan's crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, "all good here," according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 700km south of St John's, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 300m off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

With Associated Press.

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There will be aircraft to see, flights to buy, exhibitions to see and pilots to meet.

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Australia is leading a new global initiative to protect aid workers in warzones, after the death of Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza earlier this year.

Last year was the deadliest on record for aid workers, with more than 280 killed, and more wounded and kidnapped.

In 2024, more have been killed in conflict zones including Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, and elsewhere.

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Almost 300 aid workers have been killed in Gaza alone since the start of Israel's war with Hamas, including Frankcom.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is meeting with leading humanitarian organisations in New York, including UNICEF, the international Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, World Central Kitchen and the World Food Programme to discuss how best to protect people delivering vital aid to civilians in the world's most dangerous regions.

The federal government then plans to work with other countries to create a declaration of steps to protect aid workers in war zones, with the rest of the world invited to sign up.

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Zomi Frankcom's family said in a statement they supported the action.

"People like Zomi are rare and their bravery and selflessness should be not only celebrated but protected. They can't be brave at any cost," the family said.

"Zomi wasn't naive enough to believe there weren't risks, but to carry out the work she believed so passionately in, she needed to be able to trust that the deconfliction mechanisms in place would protect her."

The family said Frankcom deserved her the right to work for the people she served "in the most desperate moments of their lives".

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"Her aid work made her braver than most, and her work took her to some dangerous situations, but she was driven by a passion and clear purpose to feed and help people who needed it," they said.

"She brought joy and hope and light to communities in some of the darkest hours of their lives."

The family called for an end to the "blatant disregard" for the safety of aid workers and civilians in Gaza, and a ceasefire to halt the conflict.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said 2024 was on track to surpass 2023 as the deadliest year on record for aid workers.

"Australia is deeply concerned by this trend. It signifies that the rules and norms that protect humanitarian personnel are at risk, with consequences for current and future conflicts," she said.

"It also signifies that calls for compliance with international humanitarian law are not being heard.

"Australia felt this deeply with the IDF's strike against World Central Kitchen vehicles in April, which killed Australian Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues."

She called for the international community to re-dedicate itself to protecting aid workers in conflict zones.

"Gaza is the deadliest place on earth to be an aid worker.

"We want to ensure that their tragic deaths are not in vain and do not continue.

"Now is the moment for the international community to rededicate itself to the protection of aid workers in conflict zones."

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