There are serious concerns that the worst has happened after the Boeing 737 suddenly disappeared after taking off from the Middle East.
When replaying the flight, it turned out that the plane simply disappeared off the coast of Pakistan, losing all contact with air traffic control after takeoff from the United Arab Emirates.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said search and rescue teams were sent to the Arabian Sea after the plane went missing late Tuesday.
The cause of the incident is still unknown and the plane has not yet been found.
The Boeing 737, owned by Karachi-based K2 Airways, was a cargo plane with five people on board, en route from Sharjah in the UAE to Karachi, Pakistan.
The crew reported a problem with the navigation system around 21:18 local time.
Radar data showed the plane suddenly lost altitude and “descended rapidly” before making a sharp turn just minutes later, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Contact with the aircraft was lost at approximately 21:21 when it was approximately 155 nautical miles (287 km) west of Karachi.
Authorities are continuing search efforts to try to figure out what happened to the plane and the five crew members on board.
According to Flightradar24.com, a global flight tracking service, preliminary data sent from the plane “indicated a loss of altitude, followed by a climb, and then a second, sudden and abrupt loss of altitude.”
K2 Airways is a private cargo airline in Pakistan operating scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally.
According to Airfleets.net, the aircraft, manufactured in 1999, flew as a passenger aircraft for Aeroflot and Garuda Indonesia before being converted into a freighter in 2012.
This is the only K2 Airways aircraft that will enter service with the carrier in 2024.
If the casualties are confirmed, it would be the first fatal plane crash in Pakistan since 2020, when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashed short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 people after the pilots became distracted discussing the coronavirus before a failed landing attempt.
-With AFP
Even more to come