A Pakistani cargo plane carrying five crew members has gone missing while flying from Sharjah, UAE, to Karachi.
Reuters reported that contact was lost with K2 Airways’ Boeing 737-400 cargo plane and Karachi air traffic control on Monday night.
Pakistan Airports Authority said the pilot reported a navigation system fault at 9:18pm local time, just before losing contact.
Local air traffic control attempted to guide the aircraft in response, but it disappeared completely from radar just three minutes later.
According to official information, the aircraft was over the Arabian Sea, about 287 kilometers west of the Karachi coast, at the moment contact was lost.
Preliminary data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed extreme altitude fluctuations before the aircraft disappeared from radar.
In its final moments, the aircraft descended nearly 5,000 feet in less than a minute.
About 30 seconds later, it climbed back up 6,000 feet before ultimately plunging straight down from an altitude of 36,550 feet.
The last radar data showed the aircraft descending at a rate of 22,400 feet per minute (roughly 400 kilometers per hour) while at just 1,100 feet above sea level.
Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said the aircraft carried five crew members. The K2 Airways Boeing 737 Pakistan cargo flight from Sharjah to Karachi reported a navigation system fault at 9:18pm, after which Karachi Area Control Center (ACC) immediately issued guidance.
Pakistan’s airport authorities have launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation at sea for the missing aircraft and crew.
According to FlightRadar24, the aircraft, registered AP-BOI, is a Boeing 737-4M0 (BDSF) that joined K2 Airways’ fleet in 2024.
The aircraft originally entered service as a passenger plane with Aeroflot in 1999. It later joined Garuda Indonesia’s fleet in 2004 and was converted into a cargo aircraft in 2012. It was subsequently operated by TNT Airways and ASL Airlines.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report