Cargo plane with 5 aboard goes missing off Pakistan’s coast, officials say

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A cargo plane with five crew members aboard went missing off the Pakistani port of Karachi late Tuesday after rapidly descending and losing contact with air traffic controllers while on a flight from United Arab Emirates, officials said.

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a post on X that search-and-rescue operations were under way in the Arabian Sea. The cause of the aircraft’s disappearance was not immediately known.

The Boeing 737 was being operated by Karachi-based K2 Airways on a cargo flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi when it reported a navigation system problem at 9:18 p.m. local time, the Civil Aviation Authority said.

Radar data showed the aircraft rapidly descending and making a sharp change in heading at about 9:21 p.m. before radar and radio contact were lost about 155 nautical miles (287 kilometers, 178 miles) west of Karachi, the authority said.