Pakistani rescuers recover wreckage of missing cargo plane

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane in a deep sea search operation on Wednesday, 12 hours after it went missing off the coast of Karachi, with efforts underway to find the five crew members who were on board, authorities said.

“The wreckage of K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 was recovered 53 nautical miles (98km) south of Ormara port,” Pakistan Airports Authority said.

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.

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 9.18pm Pakistan Standard Time 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 155 nautical miles (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 5,000 feet in less than a minute before soaring about 6,000 feet in 30 seconds and then 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 – about 400 kilometres per hour – 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 GE.N and France’s Safran SAF.PA.

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.