British adventurer Hamish Harding, a British businessman and his son who were on board the missing submarine dived towards the wreck of the Titanic, according to family members.
Aviation Action Chairman Harding, 58, is a renowned space explorer and holder of three Guinness World Records.
The family of businessman Shazadeh Daud and his son Suleiman called on people to pray for them.
Submarine pilot Oceangate said all efforts were made to bring the crew home.
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargolet is also on board, according to Harding's Facebook post before the dive.
It was also widely reported that Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush was in attendance.
Contact with the mini-submarine was lost about an hour and 45 minutes after Sunday's mid-Atlantic dive.
Now, the search team continues to race against time, but so far there is no sign of the ship.
For billionaire private jet dealer Harding, a trip to the Titanic wreck was just the latest in a series of adventures.
He has traveled to the South Pole several times, and in 2022 he will travel to space aboard the manned spacecraft Blue Origin V, setting three world records, including the longest time spent at all depths in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. established..
Harding announced on social media last weekend that the ship had departed from Saint John, Newfoundland, Canada, to the site of the Titanic wreck.
From there, he and his team were scheduled to begin diving the submarine towards the crash site on Sunday morning around 04:00 local time (08:00 GMT).
He wrote on Facebook that he was "proud to finally announce" that he would be on the Titanic wreck mission.
2023 will likely be the first and only crewed flight to the Titanic because "Newfoundland has had its worst winter in 40 years," he said.
“I just opened the weather window and will try diving tomorrow,” he continued.
Action Aviation announced Sunday that the submarine was successfully launched and that Harding "is now sinking".
"He disappeared in a submarine," his son-in-law Brian Sass later wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Patrick Woodhead, founder of British travel company White Desert Antarctica, said Harding is an "incredible" aviation researcher who is passionate about finding new ways to make the world a better place. said he was an active proponent of
He said Harding had made several trips to Antarctica, including with American astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
He added that his thoughts and prayers were with Harding's wife, Linda, and his sons.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Daud family of Pakistan said: "Our son Shahzada Daud and his son Suleiman set out on a journey to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.
"So far, communication with the submersible has been lost and the information available is limited."
Based in Surbiton, southwest London, the Dowd family has been in Canada for a month.
According to her website, Shazada Daud comes from one of Pakistan's wealthiest families and serves on the board of the City Institute, a California-based research institute.
She said he lives in England with his wife Christina and two children, Solomon and Alaina, and is part of the founding circle of the British Asian Trust.
He is also Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the David Hercules Foundation, part of the David Group, a group of various family-owned businesses.
"We are very appreciative of the concerns expressed by our colleagues and friends and ask everyone to pray for their safety," the parents said in a statement.
He went on to say that his family was well taken care of and that he hoped for a safe return.
Searches have so far used military aircraft, submarines and sonar buoys.
The Titanic wreck is about 435 miles (700 km) south of St. John's, Newfoundland, but rescue operations are being conducted from Boston, Massachusetts.
The US Coast Guard said the research vessel Polar Prince conducted a surface search for the submarine on Monday night.
The ship was used to transport the submarine to the crash site and was used as a support vessel on Sunday's cruise.
"Following reports that a submarine has gone missing off the coast of North America, a Foreign Office spokesperson has contacted a British family member," said a Foreign Office spokesman, referring to the investigation into Mr Harding.
The eight-day trip, which includes a trip to the Titanic wreck, is operated by Oceangate Expeditions and departs from St. John's for $250,000 (£195,600) per person.
Participants travel approximately 370 miles (595 km) above the crash site in a large vessel, then dive eight hours to Titanic in a truck-sized submarine known as Titan.
As reported on the company's website, the Titan is designed to carry five people and provide the crew with 96 hours of "life support."
The Titanic lies 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) below sea level in the Atlantic Ocean. It lies about 600 kilometers (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland.
The largest passenger liner at the time, she collided with an iceberg in 1912 on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew, over 1,500 died.
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