Pakistan Navy search and rescue teams are navigating challenging conditions in the Arabian Sea as the operation to locate the five-member crew of a cargo plane enters its second day. The aircraft, operated by the private carrier K2 Airways, vanished from radar late Tuesday while approaching Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the crew reported a navigation system malfunction shortly before radio and radar contact was lost. Data indicated that the plane made a sharp turn and underwent a rapid descent approximately 287 kilometers (178 miles) west of Karachi at about 9:21 p.m. on Tuesday.
Teams have been combing waters nearly 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Karachi. On Wednesday, the Pakistan Airports Authority said that Navy ships and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency located and recovered wreckage about 12 hours after the aircraft disappeared. The debris was recovered about 100 kilometers (60 miles) off Ormara, a coastal town on Pakistan’s southwestern Makran coast in Balochistan province, though there has been no sign of the missing crew. Officials noted that the debris is scattered across a wide area, with strong winds and currents complicating recovery efforts.
Two officials familiar with the operation, speaking anonymously, confirmed that both the main fuselage and the crew remain missing. Retired Rear Adm. Faisal Shah cautioned that locating the primary wreckage could take months or years, as the aircraft is believed to have crashed in waters about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) deep, necessitating specialized equipment. He also noted that floating debris does not necessarily pinpoint the crash site due to the impact of waves and currents, citing the challenges illustrated by the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in 2014 and has never been conclusively located despite years of multinational search efforts.
The missing crew members have been identified by K2 Airways as Capt. Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, and aircraft loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to deploy all necessary resources for the search and offered his sympathies to the families of the crew.
The incident adds to a history of aviation tragedies in Pakistan, including the May 2020 crash of a Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 99 people that crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near the Karachi airport, resulting in 97 deaths among the 99 people on board. An investigation into the current cargo plane crash remains ongoing.
Two officials familiar with the ongoing search and rescue operations told The Associated Press that the aircraft’s main fuselage and the five crew members remain missing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record.
