The wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane has been located approximately 12 hours after it vanished from radar over waters near Pakistan. The K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 was discovered 98 kilometers south of Ormara port in the Arabian Sea, with search operations ongoing for the five crew members on board.
Crew and Aircraft Details
The missing crew includes two pilots, two engineers, and one support staff member. Authorities have not officially declared their status, but Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his "heartfelt condolences" to their families. K2 Airways identified the five crew members in a Facebook statement, adding that they "continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues."
Search and Recovery Operations
"After 12 hours of Search and Rescue operations in deep sea have successfully located and identified wreckage of K2 Airways Cargo B737 which was declared missing last night," the Pakistan Airports Authority posted on Facebook Wednesday local time. "Various air and sea borne assets were employed... to locate the wreckage and efforts are underway to find the missing crew members."
Flight Path and Incident Timeline
Flight KTA1732 was en route from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi when it began experiencing navigational system problems around 9:18 PM on Tuesday, airport authorities reported. Air traffic controllers in Karachi attempted to guide the plane, but the aircraft was observed on radar "rapidly descending with a rapid heading change." Subsequently, radar contact and communication were lost.
The 27-year-old converted freighter was tracked by Flightradar24 losing altitude—5,000 feet in less than a minute—before briefly climbing about 6,000 feet in 30 seconds, then entering a catastrophic dive from 36,550 feet. The wreckage bore the marking "K2 AIR" visible in images released by the Pakistan Airports Authority.
