CHILLING FINAL WORDS REVEALED… – The wreckage of a Boeing 737 that suddenly vanished has reportedly been found in the Arabian Sea, as investigators reveal the pilot’s haunting final radio transmission.
The wreckage of a Boeing 737 plane that suddenly went missing after departing the Middle East on Tuesday has been successfully located, Pakistan’s airports authority said.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority, radar data showed the aircraft suddenly losing altitude and “rapidly descending” before making a sharp turn just minutes later.
The Boeing 737, operated by Karachi-based K2 Airways, was a cargo plane with five people on board, travelling from Sharjah in the UAE to Karachi, Pakistan.
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On Wednesday, the country’s navy and maritime rescue agency said after searching for 12 hours, they have “successfully located and identified wreckage of K2 Airways Cargo B737 which was declared missing last night”, the PAA statement posted on X read.
The wreckage was found in the Arabian Sea, off Ormara town on Pakistan’s southern coast, it said.
“Efforts are underway to find the missing crew members,” the PAA added.
The authority published images of personnel lifting pieces of the fuselage from a small boat onto a larger vessel and the red and white debris with the words “K2 Air” laid out on the ship’s deck, AFP reported.
In a statement issued before the plane wreckage was found, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed “deep sorrow, grief, and regret over the tragic incident in which a private cargo aircraft… crashed into the Arabian Sea and went missing”.
After 12 hours of search and rescue operations, Pakistan Airports Authority revealed the wreckage of a missing cargo plane has been successfully located. Picture: Pakistan Airports Authority
The wreckage was found in the Arabian Sea, off Ormara town on Pakistan’s southern coast. Picture: Pakistan Airports Authority
Pilot’s chilling final audio
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The chilling final transmission reveals the pilot raised the alarm that the plane was “rolling or floating”.
While rolling is a phase of flight, floating refers to a landing error.
Pakistan civil aviation authorities, the navy and the air force were directed to intensify search and rescue operations and use all available resources to locate the missing plane, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office prior to successfully locating it.
The cause of the incident is not yet known.
Various air and seaborne assets were employed by PN & PMSA to locate the wreckage. Picture: Pakistan Airports Authority
Personnel were seen lifting pieces of the fuselage from a small boat onto a larger vessel and the red and white debris with the words ‘K2 Air’ laid out on the ship’s deck. Picture: Pakistan Airports Authority
Contact with the aircraft was lost at approximately 9.21pm when it was around 155 nautical miles (287km) west of Karachi.
When looking at playback of the flight, the plane appeared to simply vanish off the coast of Pakistan, losing all contact with air traffic control after taking off from the United Arab Emirates.
The crew reported a navigation system issue at around 9.18pm local time.
It is a cargo aircraft that had five people on board. Picture: FlightRadar24 / JetPhotos
The flight suddenly vanished after a sharp turn back. Picture: FlightRadar
Preliminary data sent from the plane “indicated a loss of altitude, followed by a climb, and then a second, sudden and dramatic loss of altitude,” according to Flightradar24.com, a global flight-tracking service.
The playback of the flight before it suddenly vanished. Picture: FlightRadar24
In a statement posted to their social media page yesterday, K2 Airways said it was co-operating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies.
They also identified the five crew members on board and said that they “continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues.”
K2 Airways posted the statement on their social media page. Picture: Facebook
K2 Airways is a private cargo airline in Pakistan that operates scheduled and charter flights domestically and internationally.
Manufactured in 1999, the plane flew as a passenger plane for Aeroflot and Garuda Indonesia before being converted to a cargo configuration in 2012, according to Airfleets.net.
The plant’s granular altitude, ground speed, and vertical rate data was tracked. Picture: FlightRadar24
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If casualties are confirmed, it would be Pakistan’s first fatal air crash since 2020, when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 came down short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 people after pilots were distracted discussing the coronavirus before a failed landing attempt.
-With AFP
