The wreckage of a Boeing 737 cargo aircraft operated by K2 Airways was located in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday, nearly 12 hours after it went missing off the Karachi coast. The Pakistan Airports Authority confirmed that search operations are ongoing to locate the five crew members who were on board.
Recovery Operation Details
The Pakistan Navy (PN) and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) conducted an extensive search and rescue operation in deep sea waters. The debris was recovered approximately 53 nautical miles south of Ormara, a coastal town in Balochistan. A statement from the authorities read: "PN and PMSA after 12 hours of Search & Rescue operations in deep Sea have successfully located and identified wreckage of K2 Airways Cargo B737 which was declared missing last night. The wreckage was recovered from 53 NM South of ORMARA."
Multiple air and sea assets were deployed to locate the aircraft. The search efforts are continuing to find the missing crew members.
Sequence of Events
The Pakistan-registered Boeing 737-400 freighter was operating a flight from Sharjah to Karachi on Tuesday night. According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the aircraft reported a navigational system issue while en route at around 9:18 PM local time. Karachi Air Traffic Control guided the plane, but three minutes later, at approximately 9:21 PM, radar contact showed the aircraft rapidly descending with a sudden change in heading. Communication and radar contact were lost around 155 nautical miles west of Karachi.
"Following the occurrence, Rescue Coordination Centre has been activated and coordinated Search & Rescue launched at sea through various agencies to locate the missing aircraft," the authority said.
Flight Data Analysis
Flight tracking data revealed severe altitude fluctuations before the crash. The plane descended about 5,000 feet in less than a minute, then climbed approximately 6,000 feet within 30 seconds, and later entered a steep descent from an altitude of about 36,550 feet. Its final transmission showed the aircraft at around 1,100 feet with a high rate of descent.
The aircraft involved was a decades-old Boeing 737-400 freighter, a model that predates the newer 737 MAX series. The search and rescue operation remains underway as authorities investigate the cause of the incident.
