(VIDEO) Pakistan Expands Search for Missing K2 Airways Cargo Plane With Five Crew Aboard

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's Navy and civilian authorities expanded their search Wednesday for a cargo plane feared to have crashed into the Arabian Sea after it disappeared from radar and lost contact with air traffic control late Tuesday night while flying from Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, to the southern port city of Karachi.

The Karachi-bound aircraft, a Boeing 737-400 freighter operated by the private carrier K2 Airways, reported a navigational system issue while en route with five people on board. According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the aircraft was being guided by the Karachi Area Control Centre after reporting the fault at 9:18 p.m. local time. Three minutes later, at 9:21 p.m., the aircraft was observed on radar making a rapid descent accompanied by a sharp change in heading. Radar contact and communication were lost shortly afterward, approximately 155 nautical miles, or 287 kilometers, west of Karachi.

Preliminary flight-tracking data reviewed by multiple outlets showed the aircraft losing nearly 1,525 meters, or roughly 5,000 feet, of altitude in under a minute before climbing back approximately 1,830 meters, or about 6,000 feet, over the following 30 seconds. It then entered what flight-tracking service Flightradar24 described as a final, near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 meters, or about 36,550 feet. The aircraft's last transmitted position placed it at 335 meters, or roughly 1,100 feet, descending at 22,400 feet per minute, or approximately 400 kilometers per hour, a rate of descent consistent with the plane entering the water.

The Pakistan Airports Authority said it activated its Rescue Coordination Center immediately after contact was lost and launched a coordinated multi-agency search-and-rescue operation at sea. According to officials familiar with the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the possible crash, the Pakistan Navy frigate PNS Zulfiqar was dispatched to the area where contact with the aircraft was lost. The Pakistan Air Force also deployed aircraft to assist in the search, while a separate Pakistan Navy ATR aircraft took off from the southwestern city of Turbat to join the effort. A merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation also joined the multi-agency search, officials said.

As of Wednesday, officials said the vast search area across the Arabian Sea, combined with rough monsoon-season seas, was posing significant challenges to the rescue operation. No wreckage or survivors had been located as of the latest updates.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed sympathy for the families of the five crew members and directed the government to deploy all available resources to the search effort, according to a statement from his office. Sharif said he felt "deep sorrow, grief, and regret over the tragic incident in which a private cargo aircraft flying from Sharjah to Karachi crashed into the Arabian Sea and went missing," extending his condolences to the crew's families and instructing the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force to intensify search-and-rescue operations using all available resources.

In a statement, K2 Airways said search-and-rescue operations were continuing to be conducted by Pakistani authorities and that the company was fully cooperating with aviation officials. The airline identified the five crew members as Captain Muhammad Rizwan Idris, the pilot in command; First Officer Faisal Jatoi; flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui; and aircraft loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan. "We continue to pray earnestly for the safety of our colleagues," the airline said.

K2 Airways, headquartered in Karachi, is a private cargo airline established in May 2018 under an airline charter license issued by the Pakistani government. According to flight-tracking service ch-aviation, the aircraft involved, registered as AP-BOI, was approximately 27 years old and had flown for six different operators over its service history. It was originally delivered to Russia's Aeroflot as a passenger aircraft in 1999, later flew for Indonesia's Garuda Indonesia, and was converted into a freighter in 2012 for operation by Belgium's TNT Airways and later ASL Airlines. The aircraft was withdrawn from service in June 2023 and parked in France for roughly 10 months before being reactivated by Irish leasing company AerCap in April 2024. It was subsequently placed back into storage, first in Jakarta and later in Karachi, before entering service with K2 Airways in December 2024. The aircraft was the only plane in K2 Airways' fleet.

Flight-tracking data indicated the aircraft experienced GNSS, or satellite navigation, interference shortly after takeoff, consistent with other aircraft operating in the region at the time, resulting in temporarily degraded navigation data near Sharjah. According to Flightradar24, standard ADS-B tracking data resumed once the aircraft exited the area affected by that interference, though the cause of the aircraft's subsequent rapid descent and loss of contact remains under investigation.

Aviation expert Imran Aslam told local broadcaster ARY News late Tuesday that it remained unclear what caused the aircraft to disappear from radar. He said that even if the plane had suffered an engine failure, it would normally have continued gliding rather than descending suddenly, adding that the exact cause would only become clear once investigators had gathered further evidence. Pakistan's Bureau of Air Safety Investigation is expected to lead the formal investigation into the aircraft's disappearance.

There has been no official confirmation of the aircraft's ultimate fate as of this report, though Pakistani officials, including the prime minister's office, have described the incident using language consistent with a crash into the sea. If a crash is ultimately confirmed, it would mark Pakistan's first major civilian aviation disaster since May 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 98 people crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near Karachi's airport while attempting to land, killing all but one of the 99 people on board. A subsequent government investigation into that crash concluded that human error by the pilots and air traffic controllers had caused the accident.

As search operations continue across the Arabian Sea, Pakistani authorities have not provided a timeline for when the search might conclude or when further details about the crew members' fate might be confirmed. Officials have said the difficult monsoon sea conditions and the scale of the search area remain the primary obstacles facing rescue teams as the operation moves into its second day.