The remains of a Boeing 737 cargo plane have been found off the coast of Pakistan, Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said, according to the Guardian. The authority said rescuers were searching for the five crew members who were on board when the aircraft went missing.
The plane, operated by K2, was flying to Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on July 7, when radar showed it “rapidly descending” after reporting a “navigational system issue,” according to the PAA.
After a 12-hour search, Pakistan’s navy and maritime rescue agency “successfully located and identified wreckage of K2 Airways cargo B737 which was declared missing last night”, the PAA said in a statement posted on X.
In a statement issued before the plane wreckage was found, the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, expressed “deep sorrow, grief and regret over the tragic incident in which a private cargo aircraft … crashed into the Arabian Sea and went missing.”
K2 Airways is a private Pakistani cargo airline that operates scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally. The Guardian says Pakistan’s aviation sector has a “chequered history,” with several deadly plane crashes in the past decade, including in the southern city of Karachi. The EU barred Pakistan’s national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, from its airspace for four years over safety and licensing concerns, but lifted the ban in 2024.
