Since yesterday afternoon, Pakistani authorities have been conducting a search-and-rescue operation to locate a Boeing 737 cargo plane that disappeared from radar over the seaoff the coast of Karachi, the Pakistan Airport Authority (PAA) announced via X.

The aircraft, with a five-member crew and operated by the private company K2 Airways, was recorded as being in a “rapid descent” shortly before it disappeared from radar screens, according to the same source.

It was flying from Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, to Karachi when it disappeared last night at 9:21 p.m. (local time; 6:21 p.m. Greek time), after the crew reported shortly before that they were experiencing a “navigation system problem,” the agency noted.

It was observed to be “descending rapidly” and making a “sharp change in direction”; subsequently, contact was lost and its location could no longer be determined while it was approximately 155 nautical miles (about 287 kilometers) from Karachi, according to the PAA’s announcement.

A search and rescue operations coordination center has been activated, and efforts to locate the 737 are underway.

Preliminary data transmitted by the aircraft indicate “a loss of altitude, followed by a climb, and then a second, sudden, and dramatic loss of altitude”, noted the specialized website FlightRadar24.

K2 Airways is a Pakistani private cargo airline that operates scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally.

Built in 1999, the aircraft that disappeared from radar yesterday had been used as a passenger plane by Aeroflot (Russia) and Garuda (Indonesia) before being converted to a cargo aircraft in 2012, according to data from the specialized website Airfleets.net.

Source: Proto Thema