Pakistani rescue teams located the wreckage of a cargo plane during a deep-sea search operation on Wednesday, nearly 12 hours after it disappeared off the coast of Karachi. Authorities said search efforts were continuing to locate the five crew members who were on board.
The wreckage of the K2 Airways Boeing 737 was found about 53 nautical miles (98 km) south of Ormara Port, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority.
The Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency deployed “various air and sea borne assets” to locate the remains, it said, adding that the search operation was continuing to find the crew members.
Aircraft Reported Navigation Failure
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed authorities to speed up the search for the 27-year-old converted freighter, which went missing in the Arabian Sea after reporting a navigational system problem.
K2 Airways, the plane’s operator, said the crew comprised two pilots, two engineers and one support staffer. Authorities have made no official declaration on their status, although Sharif expressed his “heartfelt condolences” to their families.
The plane may have crashed into the sea southwest of Karachi after a series of sharp altitude changes before a steep final descent, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
Authorities had launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation at sea through various agencies, the airports authority said. K2 Airways said it was cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. Boeing has not yet commented.
The plane reported a navigational system issue at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan Standard Time (1618 GMT) on Tuesday while flying towards Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, the airports authority said.
Air traffic controllers attempted to guide the aircraft after it reported an emergency, but contact was lost minutes later as radar showed it descending rapidly. Flight-tracking data indicated the plane entered a steep, erratic descent before disappearing from radar.
Investigation Underway
The aircraft, a decades-old Boeing 737-400, may have stalled before the crash, according to U.S. aviation safety expert John Cox, who cautioned that the cause remains unclear. Pakistani authorities are leading the investigation, with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The aircraft, converted from a passenger jet into a freighter in 2012, was K2 Airways’ only plane. If confirmed fatal, the crash would be Pakistan’s deadliest aviation accident since the 2020 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crash.
(With inputs from Reuters)
