A cargo plane carrying five crew members vanished off the coast of Karachi, Pakistan, late Tuesday evening after plummeting rapidly and losing contact with air traffic controllers while on a flight from the United Arab Emirates, officials reported.
Pakistan’s airport authority announced on X that search and rescue teams had been mobilized in the Arabian Sea. The reason behind the aircraft’s disappearance has not yet been determined.
The Boeing 737, operated by Karachi-based K2 Airways, was making a cargo run from Sharjah in the UAE to Karachi when the crew reported a problem with the navigation system at 9:18 p.m. local time, according to the airport authority.
Radar tracking showed the plane dropping sharply and making a sudden change in direction around 9:21 p.m., after which both radar and radio communication were lost approximately 155 nautical miles — or about 178 miles — west of Karachi, the authority said.
In response, officials activated the Rescue Coordination Center and launched a multi-agency search and rescue effort across the sea to find the missing aircraft.
Aviation expert Imran Aslam, speaking to local ARY News, said the cause of the disappearance remains a mystery. He noted that even in cases of engine failure, a plane would typically continue gliding rather than drop so suddenly. “I still cannot understand how the plane went down so abruptly instead of gliding,” he said.
According to its website, K2 Airways is a private cargo airline headquartered in Karachi that was founded in May 2018.
Officials confirmed that both Pakistan’s military and civilian agencies deployed numerous air and sea resources for the search effort. The Pakistan Navy frigate PNS Zulfiqar was quickly redirected to the area where the aircraft disappeared. The Pakistan Air Force also sent planes to assist, and a Pakistan Navy ATR aircraft departed from Turbat to join the operation.
Additionally, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corp. was sent to the area and is taking part in the search.
This incident comes years after a devastating crash in May 2020, when a Pakistani passenger jet carrying 98 people went down in a densely populated neighborhood near the Karachi airport following what appeared to be an engine failure during its approach to land. Nearly everyone on board perished, with only one passenger surviving. A subsequent government investigation concluded that human error by the pilot, co-pilot, and air traffic control caused that Pakistan International Airlines disaster.
