Pakistani aviation authorities are searching for a Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft that disappeared over the Arabian Sea with five crew members on board. The plane, operated by Karachi-based private cargo airline K2 Airways, was en route from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi.
According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control at approximately 9:18 PM local time (16:18 GMT) on Tuesday after reporting a navigational system fault.
Data from flight-tracking service Flightradar24 shows the plane lost nearly 1,525 meters (5,000 feet) of altitude in less than a minute, then climbed about 1,830 meters (6,000 feet) in the next 30 seconds, before entering a near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 meters (36,550 feet). Its last transmitted position placed it at 335 meters (1,100 feet), descending at 22,400 feet per minute, or about 400 kilometers per hour. All contact was lost about 155 nautical miles (287 km) west of Karachi.
Security sources told Al Jazeera that a Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, and two navy aircraft are participating in the search. No wreckage or survivors have been found so far.
K2 Airways issued a statement saying, “We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,” and added that it is fully cooperating with authorities on the search. The missing plane was the only aircraft in the K2 Airways fleet.
If a crash is confirmed, this would be Pakistan’s first major civilian air disaster since May 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 of the 99 people on board.
The 27-year-old 737-400 has flown for six operators. Delivered to Russia’s Aeroflot as a passenger aircraft in 1999, it later flew for Garuda Indonesia before being converted into a freighter in 2012 for Belgium’s TNT Airways. Aircraft tracking records show it was withdrawn from service in June 2023 and parked in France for about 10 months. Irish company AerCap reactivated the aircraft in April 2024 before placing 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 his sympathies to the families of the missing crew members.
Source: www.aljazeera.com