Pakistani rescue teams are searching the waters around the site where a Boeing cargo plane is believed to have crashed this Wednesday (8). The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control while en route to Karachi with five crew members on board, Pakistani officials said. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instructed authorities to speed up search and rescue operations for the cargo ship, which went missing in the Arabian Sea after reporting a problem with its navigation system.
Rescue teams search for missing Boeing in the Arabian Sea
Pakistani rescue teams are searching the waters around the site where a Boeing cargo plane is believed to have crashed this Wednesday (8). The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control while en route to Karachi...
K2 Airways, the plane's operator, said the crew consisted of two pilots, two engineers and a support employee. Authorities have made no official statement on the plight of the victims, although Sharif expressed his “sincere 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. A coordinated multi-agency sea search and rescue operation has been launched, the Pakistan Airports Authority said on Facebook. K2 Airways said it was cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. Boeing has not yet commented. Plane reported navigation system problem The plane reported a navigation system problem at 9:18 pm Pakistan time while flying to Karachi, the airport authority reported. Local air traffic control attempted to direct it, but three minutes later radar systems showed the plane descending rapidly and communication was lost. The flight was about 287 km west of Karachi, according to the statement. The final minutes of Flightradar24's tracking data appeared chaotic, showing the plane diving about 1,500 meters in less than a minute before climbing about 1,800 meters in 30 seconds and then entering a catastrophic dive at 11 km. The last data point transmitted placed the aircraft at 335 meters above sea level, with a vertical speed of less than 400 km/h – an extremely steep and abnormal descent speed. The aircraft had entered service with the carrier in 2024. The missing aircraft is one of Boeing's decades-old 737-400, two generations older than the 737 MAX, which was involved in a safety crisis. It uses engines manufactured by CFM International, jointly owned by GE Aerospace and France's Safran. The 737-400 was first delivered as a passenger plane to Russia's Aeroflot in 1999 and was converted into 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 data from Flightradar24. The accident would be the first fatal accident in Pakistan since 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 crashed short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 people.
Source: CNN Brasil
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