Pakistani search and rescue teams discovered the wreckage of a missing Boeing cargo plane Wednesday following a 12-hour deep-sea search operation off the coast of Karachi, as crews continued working to locate the five people who were on board, officials confirmed.
The Pakistan Airports Authority reported that the wreckage of the K2 Airways Boeing 737 was found approximately 53 nautical miles — or about 98 kilometers — south of Ormara port.
The Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency deployed what authorities described as “various air and sea borne assets” to locate the debris field. The search for the crew members was still ongoing, officials said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had previously ordered authorities to accelerate the search effort for the 27-year-old converted freighter, which disappeared over the Arabian Sea after the crew reported a problem with the aircraft’s navigational system.
K2 Airways identified the five people on board as two pilots, two engineers, and one support staff member. While no official determination has been made regarding their fate, Prime Minister Sharif offered his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of those on board.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, the aircraft may have gone down in the sea southwest of Karachi following a series of dramatic altitude changes that culminated in a steep final dive.
The plane’s navigational system issue was first reported at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan Standard Time — 1618 GMT — while the aircraft was heading toward Karachi, the airports authority said. Local air traffic controllers attempted to assist the crew, but just three minutes later, radar showed the plane dropping rapidly and all communication was lost. At that point, the aircraft was approximately 155 nautical miles, or 287 kilometers, west of Karachi.
Flightradar24’s final tracking data painted a chaotic picture of the plane’s last moments — dropping roughly 5,000 feet in under a minute, then climbing about 6,000 feet in just 30 seconds, before entering a catastrophic plunge from an altitude of 36,550 feet. The last data point recorded the plane at 1,100 feet above sea level, descending at a vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute — equivalent to approximately 400 kilometers per hour — an extraordinarily steep and abnormal rate of descent.
The aircraft involved is a Boeing 737-400, a model two generations older than the 737 MAX that has been at the center of a separate aviation safety controversy. Its engines were manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran.
According to Flightradar24, the plane was originally delivered as a passenger aircraft to Russia’s Aeroflot in 1999 and was later converted to a freighter in 2012. It was K2 Airways’ sole aircraft and had only entered service with the carrier in 2024. The plane’s most recent previous flight was recorded on June 28.
K2 Airways stated it is cooperating fully with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. Boeing has not issued a comment at this time.
If confirmed as a fatal crash, it would mark Pakistan’s first aviation disaster of this kind since 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 fell short of the runway in Karachi, claiming the lives of 97 people.
