A search is underway for five Pakistani nationals who went missing after the cargo plane they were on disappeared over the Arabian Sea.
The Boeing 737 aircraft was operated by K2 Airways, a Pakistani airline named for Earth’s second-highest peak. The plane was scheduled to fly between Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and Karachi, Pakistan, before it lost contact with air traffic controllers south of Pakistan.
Public aircraft tracking systems show the plane descending rapidly when it last pinged ground stations at 9:21 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The aircraft was headed toward the sea at the time at a rate of 22,400 feet per minute.
The Pakistan Airports Authority said in a statement on social media that it had launched search and rescue aircraft to locate the missing plane. Government officials also said the Pakistan Navy frigate PNS Zulfiqar was en route to the possible crash zone.
The Pakistan Navy released photos on Wednesday of wreckage belonging to the aircraft, which it discovered in the deep sea near the town of Ormara.
K2 Airways said in a statement that the crew included one pilot, one first officer, one load master, and two engineers. None are accounted for.
“K2 Airways is fully cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies,” the airline said. “We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues.”
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K2 Airlines began operations in 2018, according to its website. The Boeing 737 in question went into service in 2024. It previously served as a passenger aircraft, first with the Russian airline Aeroflot in 1999.
The United Kingdom lifted a five-year ban on Pakistani airlines in 2025. Regulators imposed that ban after the Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashed in Karachi in 2020, leaving 97 dead. Pakistani airlines are still barred from the United States, per Federal Aviation Administration rules.