K2 Airways Cargo 737 Crashes into Arabian Sea, Five Crew Missing off Karachi

At around 21:18 local time on July 7, a Boeing 737 freighter operated by K2 Airways stopped responding over the Arabian Sea. The aircraft was roughly 155 nautical miles west of Karachi when contact was lost. Five crew members remain missing.

Flight 1732 was a regular cargo run from Sharjah International Airport in the UAE to Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. The plane, a 737-400 registered AP-BOI, was on approach when the crew reported a navigational system malfunction. Three minutes later, contact was gone.

Flight tracking data showed a rapid descent, then a brief climb, then a second steep dive at around 22,400 feet per minute. The signal stopped at 1,100 feet.

Pakistan Navy search teams found surface wreckage roughly twelve hours later, about 53 nautical miles off the coastal town of Ormara. The main fuselage has not been located. Investigators believe the aircraft came to rest at approximately 3,000 metres below the surface, a depth that will need specialist recovery equipment. Neither the flight data recorder nor the cockpit voice recorder has been retrieved.

The five crew members were Captain Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Arif Siddiqui and Muhammad Hamid, and loadmaster Muhammad Taufiq. Search operations in rough Arabian Sea conditions continued through at least July 10. Funeral prayers for one of the flight engineers were held on July 13.