Five crew members on board a cargo plane that took off from Sharjah are missing after the aircraft disappeared from radar off the coast of Pakistan.
Air traffic control lost contact with the K2 Airways Cargo 737 aircraft on Tuesday night after a navigation system problem occurred while the plane was on its way to Karachi. Flight data showed the plane experienced a loss of altitude and a high rate of descent, followed by a climb and then a second sudden loss of altitude, suggesting it crashed into the sea.
Pakistan aviation authorities said a search and rescue operation was now under way.
K2 Airways, which has its headquarters in Karachi, is a private cargo airline established in 2018 under the airline charter licence issued by the Pakistani government.
The Boeing 737 began service with K2 Airways in 2024 and had previously been operated by the Russian airline Aeroflot in 1999 and by Garuda Indonesia in 2004. In 2012, it was converted into a cargo plane and operated by TNT Airways and ASL Airlines, before being transferred to a Pakistani operator to move cargo around the Arabian Gulf and the wider region.
