The loved ones of Faisal Jatoi, the co-pilot of a Pakistani cargo plane that went down in the Arabian Sea, are desperately waiting for answers as search teams continue combing the waters off Pakistan’s southern coast.
Jatoi was at the controls of a K2 Airways Boeing 737 freighter on Tuesday night, flying from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi, when the aircraft crashed into the sea. Pakistani rescue teams located the wreckage during a deep-sea search operation on Wednesday.
Jatoi’s father-in-law, Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, described the moment the family realized something had gone terribly wrong. Unable to get through to Jatoi by phone, a family member turned to Google — and the word “crash” appeared. “That moment felt like doomsday for us,” Bahrani told Reuters at his home in Karachi. Jatoi leaves behind a wife and a two-year-old son.
Bahrani also revealed that the aircraft — a 27-year-old Boeing 737-400 converted freighter — had spent 10 days grounded in Sharjah for repairs after completing a cargo delivery. The crew had been waiting on a spare part to arrive from the United States before they could make the return trip.
According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the plane reported a navigational issue at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan time while en route to Karachi. Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed erratic changes in altitude before the plane entered a steep dive.
The wreckage was discovered approximately 53 nautical miles, or about 98 kilometers, south of Ormara port. Navy and maritime security teams are now working to locate the plane’s flight recorders.
K2 Airways confirmed that five people were aboard the aircraft: two pilots, two engineers, and one support staff member. Their status has not yet been officially declared.
A Pakistani aviation expert, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to comment publicly, warned that recovering the wreckage could rank among the most difficult operations in Pakistan’s recent history. Water depths in the area of the Arabian Sea where the plane went down range from roughly 2,500 to more than 3,500 meters. The expert noted that strong currents, poor underwater visibility, an uneven seabed, and shifting sea conditions would all add to the challenge of bringing up the submerged wreckage and the flight data recorders.
