Pakistani rescue teams focused their efforts on Wednesday (28) in the Arabian Sea region, where a Boeing cargo plane reportedly crashed. The incident occurred hours after the aircraft, which had five crew on board, lost contact with air traffic control while heading to Karachi, according to information released by authorities in the country.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued an order for search and rescue operations for the cargo ship, a 27-year-old converted model, to be accelerated. The plane disappeared over the sea after signaling a failure in its navigation system.
K2 Airways, responsible for operating the aircraft, confirmed that the crew consisted of two pilots, two engineers and a member of the support team. Authorities remained silent on the condition of the crew, but Sharif offered his “sincere condolences” to their families.
Flight path showed sudden changes before disappearance
Data from flight tracking service Flightradar24 suggests the plane may have crashed into the sea southwest of Karachi. The record shows a series of rapid variations in altitude, culminating in a sharp and definitive descent.
Authorities have launched a major search and rescue operation at sea, with the collaboration of several agencies, according to a statement from the Pakistan Airport Authority. K2 Airways said it is providing full cooperation to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government bodies, while Boeing has not yet issued a statement on the case.
The plane reported a problem with the navigation system at 9:18 pm local Pakistan time (4:18 pm GMT) while heading towards Karachi, as detailed by the airport authority.
Local air traffic control attempted to guide the aircraft, however, just three minutes later, radar systems indicated the plane was rapidly crashing, and communication was interrupted. At that time, the flight was approximately 155 nautical miles (287 km) west of Karachi.
Abnormal details of the last minutes of flight
Flightradar24’s final tracking records showed a worrying and chaotic sequence: the plane lost about 1,500 meters of altitude in less than a minute, regained about 1,800 meters in 30 seconds, and then began an abrupt dive from 11,150 meters. Such altitude fluctuations are extremely atypical in controlled emergency situations, suggesting a severe and sudden loss of aircraft control, which can be crucial to air safety investigations.
The last data point transmitted located the plane at 1,100 feet above sea level, recording a vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute, equivalent to about 250 miles per hour. This rate of descent is considered extremely steep and outside the normal range.
History of the Boeing 737-400 model and previous accidents in Pakistan
The missing aircraft is a Boeing 737-400, a model that has been in operation for decades, being two generations older than the 737 MAX, known for having been at the center of a global security crisis. The engines used in the plane are manufactured by CFM International, a partnership between GE Aerospace and the French company Safran.
This Boeing 737-400 was initially delivered as a passenger plane to the Russian airline Aeroflot in 1999, and was later converted into a freighter in 2012, according to Flightradar24. It is the only plane in the K2 Airways fleet and began operating with the company in 2024. Its last flight record was on June 28.
If confirmed fatal, this would be the first serious air crash in Pakistan since 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 crashed before landing in Karachi, resulting in the deaths of 97 people.
