The search for five missing crew members on the cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea on Tuesday night has entered a third day.
Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has ordered that all available resources be directed to finding the crew after the K2 Airways Cargo 737 aircraft, which was en route to Karachi from Sharjah, disappeared from radar off the coast of Pakistan following a navigation system problem.
Search and rescue teams recovered wreckage of the plane almost 100km south of the Pakistani port of Ormara on Wednesday, although the main fuselage is still missing.
And in a statement on X, the Pakistan Airports Authority confirmed that a deep-sea search is being carried out by the Pakistan Navy and Maritime Security Agency.
“The search for the crew members is continuing with full vigour through the co-ordinated employment of aerial and sea-borne assets,” it said.
“Additional parts and debris from the ill-fated aircraft have been located and retrieved for subsequent analysis by the investigation team. Further updates will be shared as the search and rescue operation continues.”
The airline released the names of the five people on board the flight on Wednesday: pilot Mohammad Rizwan Idrees, first officer Faisal Mehmood, loadmaster Muhammad Toufique Khan, and engineers Arif Siddiqui and Mohammad Hamid.
Prime Minister Sharif extended his condolences to the families of the crew, expressing “profound grief and sorrow over the tragic incident.”
The recovered debris will be analysed by investigators to discover the cause of the accident.
Flight data showed the plane experienced a loss of altitude and a rapid descent, followed by another climb and then a second sudden loss of altitude.
K2 Airways, which has its headquarters in Karachi, is a private cargo airline established in 2018 under an airline charter licence issued by the Pakistani government.
The Boeing 737 began service with K2 Airways in 2024 and was previously 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.
