Search continues for cargo plane missing off Karachi

Pakistani authorities are searching the Arabian Sea for a Boeing 737 cargo plane that vanished off the coast of Karachi with five crew members on board after reporting a navigation system fault.

The Karachi-bound aircraft, operated by K2 Airways, had taken off from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and lost contact with air traffic control on Tuesday night. Pakistan’s airport authority said the plane rapidly descended and contact was lost at 21:21 local time, or 16:21 GMT. Al Jazeera, citing the Pakistan Airports Authority, reported that contact was lost at about 21:18 local time, or 16:18 GMT.

The aircraft had reported a navigational system problem minutes before the descent, officials said.

K2 Airways, a private cargo airline based in Karachi, identified the five crew members on board in a statement Wednesday and said it was “fully cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies.”

“We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,” the airline said.

Search teams from multiple agencies have been deployed. Pakistan’s airport authority said the navy and air force were involved in the operation. Security sources told Al Jazeera that a Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and two navy aircraft were taking part in the search.

No wreckage or survivors have been found so far, Al Jazeera reported.

Preliminary data from flight-tracking platform Flightradar24 showed a sharp fluctuation in altitude before the aircraft entered a steep descent. Al Jazeera reported that the data showed the plane lost nearly 1,525 metres, or 5,000 feet, of altitude in less than a minute, then climbed about 1,830 metres, or 6,000 feet, in the next 30 seconds. It then entered a final, near-vertical descent from 11,140 metres, or 36,550 feet.

The plane’s last transmitted position placed it at 335 metres, or 1,100 feet, while descending at 22,400 feet per minute, about 400 kilometres per hour, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet reported that all contact was lost about 155 nautical miles, or 287 kilometres, west of Karachi.

K2 Airways was founded in 2018, according to its website. Al Jazeera reported that the missing aircraft was the only plane in the airline’s fleet.

The aircraft was a 27-year-old Boeing 737-400 that had flown for six operators, Al Jazeera reported. It was delivered to Russia’s Aeroflot as a passenger aircraft in 1999, later flew for Garuda Indonesia, and was converted into a freighter in 2012 for Belgium’s TNT Airways. Aircraft tracking records cited by Al Jazeera show it was withdrawn from service in June 2023 and parked in France for about 10 months. Irish company AerCap reactivated it in April 2024 before putting it back into storage, first in Jakarta and later in Karachi, where it remained for nearly six months before entering service with K2 Airways in December 2024.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the incident and offered sympathies to the families of the missing crew members, Al Jazeera reported.

If a crash is confirmed, it would be Pakistan’s first major civilian air disaster since May 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane crashed while approaching Karachi airport. The BBC reported that all but two of the 99 people on board were killed; Al Jazeera reported the crash killed 97 of the 99 people on board.