Wreckage of Pakistani cargo plane found near Balochistan coast: Missing from radar near Karachi, search underway for 5 crew members

A Pakistani cargo plane went missing before reaching Karachi on Tuesday night. The plane was coming from Sharjah to Karachi with 5 crew members on board. Pakistani search teams have found the wreckage of the plane 53 nautical miles (about 98 kilometers) from Ormara in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Balochistan. According to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA), at 9:18 pm, the pilot informed air traffic control about a fault in the navigation system. The control room tried to guide the aircraft but lost contact after about three minutes. The plane was last tracked 155 nautical miles (287 km) west of Karachi. A massive search and rescue operation was launched in the Arabian Sea after the plane went missing. The Pakistan Navy, Air Force and other agencies were involved in the search operation. The location of the plane's disappearance... The cause of the crash is not yet known, the PAA said. There was no official information about the condition of the plane and the 5 crew members on board. According to preliminary data from Flight Radar 24, the plane first lost altitude at the last moment, then went up a little and then suddenly came down rapidly. Aviation expert Imran Aslam told ARY News that the plane usually glides for a short distance even in the event of engine failure. According to him, it is not normal for the plane to descend so fast and the reason will be clear only after the investigation. K2 Airways was launched in 2018 K2 Airways is a private cargo airline based in Karachi, which was launched in May 2018. According to reports, the 27-year-old Boeing 737 that crashed was inducted into the airline's fleet in 2024. It was the company's only aircraft and its last flight took place on June 28. Meanwhile, K2 Airways has said that it is fully cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies in the search and search operation. What is a navigation system? The navigation system helps the pilot to fly the aircraft on the designated route. It gives information about the position, direction, altitude and flight path of the aircraft. GPS, Inertial Navigation System (INS), radio beacons and other sensors are used for this. What happens if there is a malfunction in the navigation system? Earlier in May 2020, a passenger plane of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crashed in Karachi. At least 97 people were killed in the accident. In a subsequent investigation, human error on the part of the pilot, co-pilot and air traffic control was attributed to the crash.