Rescue teams have successfully located parts of a cargo plane that went down in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan. The Pakistan Airports Authority released information indicating that radar data showed the aircraft was descending rapidly before losing both radar and radio communication.
Efforts are ongoing to locate five crew members who remain unaccounted for following the crash of the K2 Airways Boeing 737. The plane was traveling from the UAE to Karachi when it lost contact approximately 155 nautical miles (290 kilometers) west of Karachi at around 9:21 PM local time on Tuesday.
The missing crew members have been identified by K2 Airways as Captain Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, along with aircraft loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan. The airline expressed its hopes for the safe return of the crew in a public statement.
Retired Rear Admiral Faisal Shah highlighted the challenges faced by search and rescue teams, noting that they are contending with rough sea conditions. He mentioned that significant portions of the wreckage may be located as deep as 3,000 meters underwater, and that ocean currents, waves, and winds could disperse the debris far from the crash site.
This incident echoes a tragic event from May 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines flight, carrying 98 individuals, crashed in a heavily populated area while approaching Karachi airport, resulting in the loss of 98 lives. A government inquiry later determined that pilot and air traffic control errors were the primary causes of that accident.
