World News | Karachi-bound K2 Airways Cargo Plane Goes Missing over Arabian Sea
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A Karachi-bound cargo plane carrying five crew members went missing over the Arabian Sea on Tuesday night. Tracking data showed a dramatic loss of altitude before radar contact vanished. The incident has revived scrutiny over Pakistan's troubled aviation safety record, recalling a fatal 2020 crash caused by severe human error.
Karachi [Pakistan], July 8 (ANI): A cargo plane flying from Sharjah to Karachi disappeared from tracking screens over the Arabian Sea late on Tuesday night, Dawn reported.
The K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 jet lost connection with the monitoring base roughly 300 kilometres west of Karachi during its approach to Pakistani airspace, according to the report.
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The captain had reported a technical problem mid-flight and sought assistance from the regional control base.
According to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA), the missing commercial freighter was carrying five crew members.
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The PAA stated that the flight crew reported a tracking instrument failure at 9:18 pm while being monitored by the Karachi Area Control Centre (ACC). However, by 9:21 pm, technical monitors noted that the aircraft was "rapidly descending" and executing an abrupt change in course.
Immediately afterwards, "radar contact and communication were lost" at a distance of nearly 287 kilometres west of Karachi.
The jet had reportedly encountered an operational anomaly with its Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) soon after departure, which compromised tracking accuracy near Sharjah.
"Preliminary ADS-B data indicate a loss of altitude, followed by a climb, and then a second, sudden and dramatic loss of altitude," global flight-tracking portal FlightRadar stated.
The final broadcast transmission from the jet was logged at an altitude of 1,100 feet above mean sea level, with a "reported vertical rate of -22,400 feet per minute".
The recent mishap serves as a grim reminder of Pakistan's chronically compromised aviation safety record, evoking memories of one of the country's most devastating air disasters.
In May 2020, a Pakistan International Airlines passenger jet carrying 98 people ploughed into a residential colony near Karachi Airport during a botched landing attempt, killing almost everyone on board.
A subsequent government inquiry exposed systemic professional negligence, concluding that egregious human error by the pilot, co-pilot, and the air traffic control teams directly caused the fatal crash. (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)