ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) have located the wreckage of the missing cargo plane during an operation that lasted for more than 12 hours at sea, Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) confirmed on Wednesday.
The wreckage of the plane was found 53 nautical miles south of the coast of Ormara. Rescue operations are still underway at sea to search for more evidence and crew members.
Naval and air assets of the Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) have been deployed to carry out the search operation.
Various air & sea borne assets were employed by PN & PMSA to locate the wreckage and efforts are underway to find the missing crew members.
Further details will follow as Search & Rescue operation progresses.— Pakistan Airports Authority (@Pk_PAA_Official) July 8, 2026
PM Shehbaz orders all-out search
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an intensified search and rescue operation for a K2 Airways cargo aircraft that crashed into the Arabian Sea while flying from Sharjah to Karachi, expressing grief over the loss of the aircraft and its five crew members.
Also Read: Search Underway After Cargo Plane With Five Crew Goes Missing Off Karachi Coast
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, Sharif expressed “deep sorrow, grief and regret” over the incident, offered condolences to the families of those on board and directed the civil aviation authorities, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force to use all available resources in the search operation.
The Boeing cargo aircraft went missing while approaching Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates when radar showed it “rapidly descending” Tuesday evening after reporting a “navigational system issue”, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said in a post on X.
According to the flight-tracking service, the aircraft, registered as AP-BOI, was a Boeing 737-400 freighter that entered service with K2 Airways in 2024.
K2 Airways is a private cargo airline in Pakistan that operates scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally.
Flightradar24 said the aircraft originally entered service as a passenger jet with Russia’s Aeroflot in 1999 before joining Indonesia’s Garuda Indonesia in 2004. It was converted into a freighter in 2012 and later operated by TNT Airways and ASL Airlines before joining the Pakistani cargo carrier.
Pakistan’s recent aviation history
The disappearance marks the latest aviation emergency in Pakistan since the country’s last major air disaster in May 2020, when a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, killing 97 of the 99 people on board.
Authorities have not yet disclosed the cause of the incident.
