Pakistani rescuers find wreckage of lost cargo plane; search on for missing crew
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The wreckage of the K2 Airways Cargo Boeing 737, after it was recovered during a search-and-rescue operation in the Arabian Sea, off Ormara town, on July 8.
PHOTO: AFP
- Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage of a K2 Airways Boeing 737 cargo plane 98km south of Ormara, with search ongoing for the five missing crew members.
- The plane reported a navigational system problem before rapidly descending and losing contact near Karachi, showing chaotic altitude changes on radar.
- This incident is Pakistan's first fatal crash since 2020, involving an older 737-400 freighter, and authorities continue coordinated search efforts with K2 Airways and government agencies.
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ISLAMABAD – Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane in a deep-sea search operation on July 8, 12 hours after it went missing off the coast of Karachi, with efforts under way to find the five crew members who were on board, the authorities said.
The wreckage of K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 was recovered 98km south of Ormara port, Pakistan Airports Authority said.
The Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency deployed “various air and seaborne assets” to locate the remains, it said, adding that the search operation was continuing to find the crew members.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed the 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 staff member. The 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 south-west of Karachi after a series of sharp altitude changes before a steep final descent, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
The 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 9.18pm local time (12.18am Singapore time the next day) while flying towards Karachi, the airports authority said.
Plane descended rapidly
Local air traffic control tried to guide it but three minutes later, radar systems showed the plane descending rapidly and communication was lost, the authority said. The flight was about 287km west of Karachi at the time, according to the statement.
The final minutes of Flightradar24‘s tracking data appeared chaotic, showing the plane plunging about 1.5km in less than a minute before soaring about 1.8km in 30 seconds and then entering a catastrophic dive from 11km.
The last transmitted data point placed the aircraft at 330m above sea level, with a vertical rate of minus 6.8km per minute – about 400kmh – an extremely steep and abnormal rate of descent.
The missing aircraft is one of Boeing’s decades-old 737-400s, 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.
The 737-400 was first delivered as a passenger plane to Russia’s Aeroflot in 1999 and was converted to a freighter in 2012, according to Flightradar24. It is K2 Airways’ only aircraft and entered service with the carrier in 2024. Its previous flight was on June 28, according to Flightradar24 data.
The incident would be 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. REUTERS
