KARACHI: Pakistani authorities on Friday said search and rescue missions to locate missing crew of a cargo plane, which crashed into the Arabian Sea this week, were still ongoing as families of the missing crew members continue to await any news about them.
The K2 Airways Boeing 737 freighter, which flew from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates for Karachi, went down off Pakistan’s southern coast on Tuesday night.
Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage during a deep-sea search a day later, but there has been no clue about the five crew members who were aboard the plane.
In a post on X, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said Pakistan Navy (PN) and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) were still searching for missing crew in the deep sea.
“The search for the crew members is continuing with full vigor through the coordinated employment of aerial and sea-borne assets,” it said.
“Additional parts and debris of the ill-fated aircraft have been located and retrieved for subsequent analysis by the investigation team.”
The aircraft, a 27-year-old Boeing 737-400 converted freighter, reported a navigational problem at 9:18pm Pakistan time (1618 GMT) on Tuesday on its way to Karachi, according to PAA.
Flightradar24 data showed erratic altitude changes before a steep descent. Wreckage of the plane was found 53 nautical miles (98 km) south of Ormara port.
K2 Airways said the five people on board included two pilots, two engineers and one support staffer. Their status has not been officially declared.
Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, the father-in-law of Pakistani co-pilot Faisal Jatoi, said on Thursday the family became alarmed when they could not reach him, and a Google search showed them the word “crash.”
“That moment felt like doomsday for us,” Bahrani told Reuters at his home in Karachi.
Jatoi has a wife and two-year-old son.
A Pakistani aviation expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, earlier said the recovery could be among the most difficult in Pakistan’s recent history, with water depths in parts of the Arabian Sea ranging from about 2,500 to more than 3,500 meters.
Strong currents, poor visibility, uneven seabed terrain and changing sea states could further complicate the effort.
