Search and rescue teams from the Pakistan Navy are contending with severe weather and rough seas for the second consecutive day as they look for the five-member crew of a cargo plane that plunged into the Arabian Sea. While authorities managed to recover pieces of wreckage on Wednesday, there has been no sign of the individuals on board.
The aircraft, operated by private carrier K2 Airways, was en route from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi. According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the plane lost radio and radar contact late Tuesday. Radar data revealed that the aircraft had made a sharp change in direction and descended rapidly at approximately 9:21 p.m., roughly 287 kilometers (178 miles) west of Karachi.
Ships and aircraft have been scouring an area nearly 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Karachi. Debris was initially located about 12 hours after the disappearance, situated approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast of Ormara, a town in Balochistan’s Makran region. The Pakistan Airports Authority shared photographs on X, showing crews retrieving wreckage, though officials noted that strong winds and shifting currents have scattered the debris across a wide area, significantly complicating the operation.
Two officials familiar with the mission stated that both the main fuselage and the crew remain missing. They added that the search is hindered by the challenging maritime environment. Retired Rear Adm. Faisal Shah cautioned that locating the main wreckage could be a long-term endeavor, potentially taking months or years, as the plane is believed to have crashed into waters approximately 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) deep. He noted that finding floating debris does not necessarily pinpoint the crash site due to the influence of waves and currents, citing the difficult search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 as a comparison.
K2 Airways has identified the missing crew members as Capt. Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, and loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered that all available resources be utilized for the rescue effort and expressed his sympathies to the families of the crew.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Pakistan has seen several fatal air incidents in recent years, including a 2020 crash involving a Pakistan International Airlines flight in Karachi, which resulted in the deaths of 97 of the 99 people on board. That incident was later attributed to human error by pilots and air traffic controllers.
Two officials familiar with the ongoing search and rescue operations told The Associated Press that the aircraft’s main fuselage and the five crew members remain missing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record.
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