The Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) confirmed on Wednesday that the wreckage of a missing Boeing 737-400 cargo plane operated by K2 Airways had been located in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Ormara. The aircraft, carrying five crew members, went missing late Tuesday after reporting a navigational system issue while approaching Karachi from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Search and Discovery
Pakistan's navy and maritime rescue agency searched for 12 hours before successfully locating and identifying the wreckage, according to a PAA statement posted on X. Images released by the authority show personnel lifting pieces of the red-and-white fuselage from a small boat onto a larger vessel, with debris bearing the words "K2 Air" laid out on the ship's deck. Efforts are underway to find the missing crew members.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed "deep sorrow, grief, and regret over the tragic incident in which a private cargo aircraft... crashed into the Arabian Sea and went missing." A source familiar with the matter told AFP that both navy and merchant vessels, supported by military aircraft, took part in the search.
Final Moments of the Flight
The PAA reported that the aircraft was observed on radar at 21:21 pm (1621 GMT) on Tuesday "rapidly descending and with rapid heading change," and communication was lost about 155 nautical miles (287 km) west of Karachi. The plane had reported a navigational system issue at 9:18 pm Pakistan Standard Time while flying toward Karachi. Air traffic control attempted to guide the plane, but three minutes later, radar showed it descending rapidly, and communication ceased.
According to Flightradar24.com, a global flight-tracking service, preliminary data from the plane indicated a loss of altitude, followed by a climb, and then a second, sudden and dramatic loss of altitude. The final minutes of tracking data appeared chaotic: the plane plunged about 5,000 feet in less than a minute, then soared about 6,000 feet in 30 seconds, before entering a catastrophic dive from 36,550 feet. The last transmitted data point placed the aircraft at 1,100 feet above sea level, with a vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute (approximately 400 km/h), an extremely steep and abnormal rate of descent.
Aircraft and Airline Details
The missing aircraft is a Boeing 737-400, two generations older than the 737 MAX that has been involved in a safety crisis. It uses engines made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE Aerospace and France's Safran. According to Airfleets.net, the plane was manufactured in 1999 and first flew as a passenger plane for Russia's Aeroflot and later for Garuda Indonesia before being converted to a cargo configuration in 2012. Flightradar24 confirmed that it entered service with K2 Airways in 2024 and is the airline's only aircraft. Its previous flight was on June 28, 2024.
K2 Airways is a private cargo airline in Pakistan that operates scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally. The airline said it is cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. Boeing has not yet commented on the incident.
Impact and Context
This incident is Pakistan's first fatal crash since 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 came down short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 people. Authorities launched a coordinated search and rescue operation at sea through various agencies, with the PAA confirming that efforts to find the missing crew members are ongoing.
