Pakistani search and rescue personnel bring aircraft wreckage aboard a Pakistan Maritime Security Agency vessel in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday. Photo courtesy Pakistan Airports Authority/EPA
Pakistan authorities were continuing a major search and rescue operation to locate five aircrew missing after a Boeing 737 cargo plane went down in the Arabian Sea off the country’s southern coast.
Wreckage from the K2 Airways aircraft was found floating in the ocean on Wednesday about 200 miles west of Karachi after air traffic control observed the aircraft descending rapidly and making a sudden heading change before disappearing from radar the previous evening, the Pakistan Airports Authority said on social media.
Minutes before, the crew of the aircraft, which was en route from the United Arab Emirates to Karachi, reported a problem with the Boeing’s navigation system.
“Various air and seaborne assets were employed by the Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency to locate the wreckage and efforts are underway to find the missing crew members,” said the PAA.
Scheduled Pakistani carriers have had a number of fatal crashes in the past 20 years, most recently the loss of an Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 which crashed in May 2020 while attempting a go-around after a botched landing at Karachi Airport, killing all but two of the 99 passengers and crew.
Pakistani carriers were subsequently banned from flying direct to American airports by the U.S. Department of Transportation in July 2020. Britain and the European Union followed suit but lifted their bans in 2025.
