Pakistani naval and civil authorities widened a search on Wednesday for a K2 Airways cargo airplane that vanished near Karachi after reporting a navigation problem and then losing radar and radio contact. Five people were aboard, and the aircraft’s fate remained unconfirmed as crews worked over the Arabian Sea.
The Pakistan Airport Authority said radar data showed the airplane made a sharp turn and descended rapidly before contact was lost at about 9:21 p.m. The aircraft was last tracked about 155 nautical miles west of Karachi, a position that put the search deep into rough water and far from shore. In those conditions, the difference between a forced water landing and a crash on impact matters less to search crews than one simple fact: no one had yet found the aircraft, and no official account had said what happened to it.
Pakistani military and civil agencies activated the Rescue Coordination Center and began search and rescue operations at sea shortly after the airplane disappeared. The Pakistan Navy sent the PNS Zulfiqar frigate to the area where contact was lost, the Pakistan Air Force mobilized aircraft, an ATR military aircraft took off from Turbat, and a merchant ship operated by Pakistan National Shipping Corp. also joined the operation. The widening effort reflected both the size of the search area and the urgency of reaching a plane that had been heading to Karachi in southern Pakistan from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
That urgency was sharpened by the weather. Heavy monsoon waves in the Arabian Sea were making the rescue operation difficult, and every hour without a confirmed trace of the aircraft made the question more pointed: did it crash into the sea or was it forced down after the navigation failure it reported? K2 Airways said Pakistani authorities were leading the operation and that the company was fully cooperating with aviation authorities, while also saying it was praying for the safety of its colleagues. Imran Aslam said the cause of the disappearance was still unclear.
The search is unfolding against a grim memory for Pakistan: in May 2020, a Pakistan International Airlines flight with 98 people aboard crashed in a densely populated neighborhood near Karachi airport while trying to land, and a later government investigation blamed pilot and air traffic controller error. For now, the immediate focus is not on explanations but on finding the cargo airplane, its five occupants, and any sign that can settle what happened over the sea.
