Five crew still missing after cargo plane wreckage found off Pakistan coast
Photo courtesy: Pakistan Airports Authority via BBC.
Five crew members remain missing after search teams located the wreckage of a Boeing 737 cargo aircraft that disappeared off Pakistan's southern coast, aviation authorities said on Wednesday.
According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, search and rescue operations are continuing to locate the missing crew members who were aboard the privately operated cargo flight. The aircraft was travelling from Karachi to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates when it went missing late Tuesday.
The Boeing 737, operated by K2 Airways, lost contact with air traffic controllers at around 9:21 p.m. local time (16:21 GMT) after a rapid descent, the authority said. The crew had reportedly informed controllers of a navigation system malfunction shortly before communication was lost.
Following a 12-hour search involving aircraft and maritime rescue teams, officials recovered the wreckage about 53 nautical miles south of Ormara, a port town on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast.
Ormara lies approximately 360 kilometres (223 miles) west of Karachi, the flight's departure point.
Pakistan's last major aviation disaster occurred in 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. The accident claimed 97 lives, with only two of the 99 people on board surviving. (BBC)
