Pakistan searches for missing K2 Airways Boeing 737 over Arabian Sea

Pakistan is looking for a K2 Airways Boeing 737 plane that went missing over the Arabian Sea with five crew members on board.

The Pakistan Airports Authority reported that a 737-400 airliner flying from Sharjah in the UAE lost communication with air traffic control about 9:18pm (16:18 GMT) on Tuesday due to a navigational system error.

Minutes later, data from Flightradar24, a global flight-tracking service, showed the plane losing nearly 1,525 metres (5,000 feet) of altitude in less than a minute before climbing about 1,830 metres (6,000 feet) over the next 30 seconds.

It then made a final, nearly vertical plunge from a height of 11,140 metres (36,550 feet). Its last transmitted position was 335 metres (1,100 feet), and it was plummeting at 22,400 feet per minute, or around 400 kilometers per hour.

All contact was lost approximately 155 nautical miles (287 kilometers or 178 miles) west of Karachi.

According to security sources, the search involves a Pakistani naval ship, a merchant vessel controlled by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, and two navy planes.

No wreckage or survivors have been discovered thus far.

“We continue to pray earnestly for the safety of our colleagues,” K2 Airways, the Karachi-based private cargo airline that flew the flight, said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it was fully collaborating with authorities in the search.

It was the only aircraft in the K2 Airways fleet. If a crash is verified, it will be Pakistan’s first big civilian flight accident since May 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines plane fell short of Karachi’s runway, killing 97 of the 99 persons on board.

It was originally delivered to Russia’s Aeroflot as a passenger aircraft in 1999, then flew for Garuda Indonesia before being converted into a freighter for Belgium’s TNT Airways in 2012.

According to aircraft tracking statistics, it was retired from service in June 2023 and parked in France for around ten months.

In April 2024, Irish business AerCap reactivated the aircraft before returning it to storage, first in Jakarta and then in Karachi, where it sat for nearly six months before entering service with K2 Airways in December 2024.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a statement expressing his condolences and sympathies to the families of the missing crew members.