[Editor’s Note: Follow Khaleej Times’ live coverage as the search for the Sharjah-Karachi cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea continues]
A Boeing cargo plane flying from Sharjah to Karachi went missing off the coast of Pakistan after air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft, which radar data showed was rapidly descending, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said.
After the cargo vanished from the radar, authorities immediately launched a multi-agency search and rescue operation in the Arabian Sea to locate the K2 Airways aircraft and the five crew members on board.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the incident, describing it as tragic, and directed authorities to intensify the search efforts.
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According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Sharif extended his condolences to the families of the crew members. He instructed ” the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force to intensify search and rescue operations in the Arabian Sea and to use all available resources in the ongoing operation.”
The Karachi-based cargo carrier said it was cooperating fully with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies.
Crew members identified
K2 Airways also revealed the identity of the five crew members:
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Mohammad Rizwan Idrees (Pilot in Command)
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Faisal Mehmood (First Officer)
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Muhammad Toufique Khan (Load Master)
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Arif Siddiqui (Engineer)
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Mohammad Hamid (Engineer)
What happened to the Sharjah-Karachi flight?
The Boeing 737-400 freighter was en route from Sharjah in the UAE to Karachi on Tuesday night when the crew reported a navigational system issue.
According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, at 9.21pm Pakistan time the aircraft was observed on radar making a rapid descent accompanied by a sharp change in heading. Contact with the aircraft was lost about 155 nautical miles west of Karachi.
A Rescue Coordination Centre was activated immediately, and search operations involving multiple agencies were launched in the Arabian Sea.
Preliminary flight data from flight-tracking service Flightradar24 indicated the aircraft first lost altitude, then climbed again before entering a second, sudden and dramatic descent shortly before contact was lost.
About K2 Airways
K2 Airways is a private cargo airline in Pakistan that operates scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally.
Manufactured in 1999, the plane flew as a passenger plane for Aeroflot and Garuda Indonesia before being converted to a cargo configuration in 2012, according to Airfleets.net.
Pakistan aviation has a chequered history with several major deadly plane crashes in the past decade, including in the southern city of Karachi.
The European Union barred Pakistan’s national carrier from its airspace for four years over safety and licensing concerns, but lifted the ban in 2024.
Source: Khaleej Times