ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan naval search and rescue teams battled rough seas on Thursday as the search for five crew members who went missing after their cargo plane crashed into the Arabian Sea entered its second day, officials said.
Wreckage from the aircraft was recovered on Wednesday, with no sign of the missing crew members.
The aircraft, operated by private carrier K2 Airways, reported a malfunction in its navigation system before losing radio and
radar contact late Tuesday, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority.
Ships and aircraft have continued to comb waters nearly 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Karachi, where the plane disappeared from radar while approaching Pakistan’s largest city from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The aircraft’s main fuselage and the five crew members remain missing, two officials familiar with the situation told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record. The search was again proving difficult because of rough seas, they added.
The Pakistan Airports Authority said Wednesday that navy ships and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency had located and recovered wreckage about 12 hours after the aircraft disappeared. The debris was recovered about 100 kilometers (60 miles) off Ormara, a coastal town on Pakistan’s southwestern Makran coast, in Balochistan province.
The authority also posted photographs on X showing search crews recovering pieces of the wreckage from the sea. Officials said the debris was scattered across a wide area, with strong winds, rough seas and shifting ocean currents carrying floating wreckage away from the crash site, complicating efforts to locate the missing crew.
Separately on Thursday, Pakistan’s navy rescued all 20 Pakistani crew members from a cargo dhow — a traditional wooden vessel used to transport goods across the Arabian Sea and nearby waters — after it began sinking east of Ormara.
In a statement, the military said the vessel issued a distress call after taking on water. It said responding to the call, naval ship and aircraft were dispatched to the area, rescuing all 20 crew members, who were receiving medical treatment.
Retired Rear Adm. Faisal Shah said that the search for the main wreckage of the lost plane could take months or even years because the aircraft is believed to have crashed in waters about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) deep, requiring specialized equipment.
He said recovering floating debris does not necessarily identify the exact crash site because wind, waves and ocean currents can carry wreckage over long distances.
He referred to challenges illustrated by the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in 2014 and has never been conclusively located despite years of multinational search efforts.
K2 Airways named the five missing crew as Capt. Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, and aircraft loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to use all available resources in the search and expressed sympathy with the families of the missing men.
The Pakistan Airports Authority said radar data indicated the aircraft made a sharp change in heading and rapidly descended before radar and radio contact were lost at about 9:21 p.m. on Tuesday, about 287 kilometers (178 miles) west of Karachi.
Pakistan has experienced several fatal air crashes in recent decades.
In May 2020, a Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 99 people crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near the Karachi airport while attempting to land. All but two of the 99 people on board were killed. A government investigation later concluded that human error by the pilots and air traffic controllers caused the crash.
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Dogar reported from Lahore, Pakistan.
