Pakistani rescuers find wreckage of lost cargo plane; search on for missing crew

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• Wreckage found 12 hours after cargo plane went missing

• Plane reported navigation system issue before losing contact near Karachi, authorities said

• Flight-tracking data show sharp altitude swings before steep final descent southwest of Karachi

• Search on to find five-member crew comprising two pilots, two engineers, one support staffer

ISLAMABAD, July 8 (Reuters) - Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage of a cargo plane in a deep-sea search operation on Wednesday, 12 hours ‌after it went missing off the coast of Karachi, with efforts underway to find the five crew members who were on board, authorities said.

The wreckage of the K2 Airways Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab 737 was recovered 53 nautical miles (98 km) south of Ormara port, the Pakistan Airports Authority said.

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The Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency deployed "various air and sea borne assets" to locate the remains, it said, adding that the search operation ​was continuing to find the crew members.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed authorities to speed up the search for the 27-year-old converted freighter, which went missing ​in the Arabian Sea after reporting a navigational system problem.

K2 Airways, the plane's operator, said the crew comprised two pilots, two engineers ⁠and one support staffer. Authorities have made no official declaration on their status, although Sharif expressed his "heartfelt condolences" to their families.

The plane may have crashed into the sea southwest ​of Karachi after a series of sharp altitude changes before a steep final descent, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.

Authorities had launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation at sea through various ​agencies, the airports authority said. K2 Airways said it was cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. Boeing has not yet commented.

The plane reported a navigational system issue at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan Standard Time (1618 GMT) on Tuesday while flying towards Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, the airports authority said.

PLANE DESCENDED RAPIDLY

Local air traffic control tried to guide it, but three minutes ​later radar systems showed the plane descending rapidly and communication was lost, the authority said. The flight was about 155 nautical miles (287 km) west of Karachi at the time, ​according to the statement.

The final minutes of Flightradar24's tracking data appeared chaotic, showing the plane plunging about 5,000 feet in less than a minute before soaring about 6,000 feet in 30 seconds ‌and then entering ⁠a catastrophic dive from 36,550 feet.

The last transmitted data point placed the aircraft at 1,100 feet above sea level, with a vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute — about 400 kilometres per hour — an extremely steep and abnormal rate of descent.

The missing aircraft is one of Boeing's decades-old 737-400s, two generations older than the 737 MAX that has been involved in a safety crisis. It uses engines made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE Aerospace (GE.N), opens new tab and France's Safran (SAF.PA), opens new tab.

U.S. safety expert and former commercial pilot John Cox said ​in an interview that flight-tracking data available ​so far suggested the crew appeared to ⁠be struggling with the airplane for unknown reasons.

"It is possible, in the last portions of it, that the airplane was stalled and descending at a very, very high rate," said Cox, who has experience flying the 737-400.

Air crashes are typically caused by multiple factors, ​and investigations can take at least a year to complete.

Authorities in Pakistan, which is leading the probe under international rules, have ​not said whether they ⁠have recovered the plane's "black boxes" that provide crucial data.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it had appointed an accredited representative to assist Pakistan in the investigation along with technical advisers from Boeing, GE Aerospace and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The K2 Airways jet was first delivered as a passenger plane to Russia's Aeroflot in 1999 and was converted to a freighter in 2012, ⁠according to ​Flightradar24. It is K2 Airways' only aircraft and entered service with the carrier in 2024. Its previous flight ​was on June 28, according to Flightradar24 data.

The incident would be Pakistan's first fatal crash since 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab A320 came down short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 people.

Reporting by ​Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Philippa Fletcher and Jamie Freed

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Asif Shahzad

Thomson Reuters

Shahzad is an accomplished media professional, with over two decades of experience. He primarily reports out of Pakistan, Afghanistan regions, with a great interest and an extensive knowledge of Asia. He also reports on politics, economy, finance, business, commodities, Islamist militancy, human rights

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