The wreckage of a K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo plane that went missing on Tuesday over the Arabian Sea has been found.

The missing plane was carrying five crew members.

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Pakistani authorities said it located the wreckage after searching for about 12 hours.

"PN and PMSA after 12 hours of Search & Rescue operations in deep Sea have successfully located and identified wreckage of K2 Airways Cargo B737 which was declared missing last night. The wreckage was recovered from 53 NM South of ORMARA," Pakistan Airports Authority said.

"Various air & sea borne assets were employed by PN & PMSA to locate the wreckage and efforts are underway to find the missing crew members. Further details will follow as Search & Rescue operation progresses," it added.

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Three minutes before crashing, the pilots reported a "navigational system issue," and were guided by air traffic control in Karachi, the Pakistan Airports Authority said in an X post.

Data from Flightradar24 appears to show it dropped in altitude, climbed, and then suddenly plunged at 22,400 feet per minute.

At altitude, an airliner typically does not descend faster than 3,000 feet per minute.

A search-and-rescue operation was conducted at sea by various agencies, the Pakistan Airports Authority said. Wreckage photos show parts of the fuselage, tail, and other systems.

K2 Airways, a Karachi-based cargo airline, said in a Facebook post that it was cooperating with government agencies for the investigation.

"K2 Airways’ cargo aircraft Boeing 737-400 Registration AP-BOI, which was going from Sharjah to Karachi last night, lost contact with Air Traffic Control at about 21:21 hours according to Pakistan time. There were 5 crew members on board the aircraft. Mohammad Rizwan Idrees (Pilot in Command), Faisal Mehmood (First Officer), Muhammad Toufique Khan (Load Master), Arif Siddiqui (Engineer), Mohammad Hamid (Englineer). Search and rescue operations are being conducted by the concerned organisations. K2 Airways is fully cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues," K2 Airways said in a statement, according to Breaking Aviation News & Videos.

NBC News has more:

Aviation expert Imran Aslam told local broadcaster ARY News late Tuesday that it remained unclear what caused the aircraft to disappear from radar. He said that even if an aircraft suffered an engine failure, it would normally continue gliding rather than plunge suddenly. He said the exact cause would become clear only after investigators gathered more evidence.

In May 2020, a Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 98 people crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near Karachi airport while attempting to land. All but one of the 99 people on board were killed. A government investigation later concluded that human error by the pilots and air traffic controllers caused the crash.

 

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