Search Intensifies for Missing Cargo Aircraft Off Karachi Coast as Rescue Efforts Continue
• Search operation enters second day with Navy, Air Force and merchant vessels involved.
• Cargo aircraft carrying five crew members disappeared while flying from Sharjah to Karachi.
• Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif orders authorities to use all available resources for rescue efforts.
• Flight data indicates the aircraft made a sudden U-turn before rapidly losing altitude and vanishing from radar.
Search and rescue operations continued on Wednesday for a missing private cargo aircraft that disappeared over the Arabian Sea near the Karachi coast, with Pakistan’s military and maritime agencies intensifying efforts to locate the aircraft and its five crew members.
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According to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA), the cargo aircraft, operated by K2 Airways, lost contact with air traffic control approximately 155 nautical miles west of Karachi while en route from Sharjah to Karachi. The aircraft has remained missing since communication was lost on Tuesday night.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed deep sorrow over the incident, describing it as a tragic accident. He extended condolences to the families of the five crew members and directed the Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force to employ every available resource to support the ongoing search and rescue mission.
Multiple naval, aerial and commercial maritime assets have been deployed in the operation. According to sources, Pakistan Navy warships PNS Zulfiqar and PNS Hunain have been dispatched to the search area, while a Pakistan Air Force Saab surveillance aircraft and a Navy ATR aircraft operating from Turbat are conducting aerial searches alongside merchant vessels in the region.
A spokesperson for the cargo company said the aircraft was flying from Sharjah to Karachi when contact with air traffic control was lost at 9:21pm. The company identified the crew members as Captain Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Mehmood, Loadmaster Muhammad Taufiq, Engineer Arif Siddiqui and Muhammad Hamid.
Authorities have also sealed the airline’s office at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport to preserve operational records as investigations into the incident continue.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar showed the aircraft, operating as flight TA1732, was cruising normally at an altitude of 35,000 feet and a speed of around 790 kilometres per hour before the situation suddenly changed. The aircraft reportedly made an unexpected U-turn and then entered a rapid descent, losing nearly 34,000 feet of altitude within five minutes. It was last recorded at approximately 1,100 feet while travelling at 211 kilometres per hour before disappearing from radar.
An air traffic controller told Geo News that the pilot did not transmit a Mayday distress call before communication was lost, suggesting the emergency developed so quickly that the crew may not have had enough time to issue a distress signal.
The incident has revived memories of the 2010 Karachi cargo plane crash, when a Russian-operated cargo aircraft carrying eight people crashed shortly after taking off from Karachi while bound for Khartoum, Sudan. All eight people on board were killed after the aircraft went down in a residential area, triggering fires and a large-scale rescue operation.
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