{"id":2449,"date":"2026-07-09T16:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=2449"},"modified":"2026-07-09T16:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:19:24","slug":"pakistani-rescuers-find-wreckage-of-lost-cargo-plane-search-on-for-missing-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=2449","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani rescuers find wreckage of lost cargo plane, search on for missing crew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2F133846012.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage of a cargo plane in a deep-sea search operation on Wednesday, 12 hours \u200cafter it <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/08\/world-news\/pakistan-expands-search-for-missing-cargo-plane-as-rough-seas-hamper-rescue-efforts\/\">went\u00a0missing off the coast of Karachi<\/a>, with efforts underway to find the five crew members who were on board, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>The wreckage of the K2 Airways Boeing 737 was recovered 53 nautical miles south of Ormara port, the Pakistan Airports Authority said.<\/p>\n<p>The Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency deployed \u201cvarious air and sea borne assets\u201d to locate the remains, it said, adding that the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/08\/world-news\/missing-pilots-haunting-final-audio-is-released-after-plane-vanished-over-pakistan\/\">search operation \u200bwas continuing to find the crew members<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Pakistan Navy personnel transporting the wreckage of a missing K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 aircraft in the sea near Ormara town, Pakistan, July 8, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">Xinhua\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed authorities to speed up the search for the 27-year-old converted freighter, which went missing \u200bin the Arabian Sea after reporting a navigational system problem.<\/p>\n<p>K2 Airways, the plane\u2019s operator, said the crew comprised two pilots, two engineers \u2060and one support staffer. Authorities have made no official declaration on their status, although Sharif expressed his \u201cheartfelt condolences\u201d to their families.<\/p>\n<p>The plane may have crashed into the sea southwest \u200bof Karachi after a series of sharp altitude changes before a steep final descent, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Authorities had launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation at sea through various \u200bagencies, the airports authority said. K2 Airways said it was cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies. Boeing has not yet commented.<\/p>\n<p>The plane reported a navigational system issue at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan Standard Time on Tuesday while flying towards Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, the airports authority said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Plane descended rapidly<\/h2>\n<p>Local air traffic control tried to guide it, but three minutes \u200blater radar systems showed the plane descending rapidly and communication was lost, the authority said. The flight was about 155 nautical miles west of Karachi at the time, \u200baccording to the statement.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Pakistan Navy personnel recover wreckage from the missing cargo plane, July 8, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">Xinhua\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The final minutes of Flightradar24\u2019s tracking data appeared chaotic, showing the plane plunging about 5,000 feet in less than a minute before soaring about 6,000 feet in 30 seconds \u200cand then entering \u2060a catastrophic dive from 36,550 feet.<\/p>\n<p>The last transmitted data point placed the aircraft at 1,100 feet above sea level, with a vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute \u2014 about 400 kilometers per hour \u2014 an extremely steep and abnormal rate of descent.<\/p>\n<p>The missing aircraft is one of Boeing\u2019s decades-old 737-400s, two generations older than the 737 MAX that has been involved in a safety crisis. It uses engines made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE Aerospace and France\u2019s Safran.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The wreckage of the missing K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 aircraft on a naval ship after being recovered from deep sea near Ormara town, Pakistan, July 8, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">Xinhua\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>US safety expert and former commercial pilot John Cox said \u200bin an interview that flight-tracking data available \u200bso far suggested the crew appeared to \u2060be struggling with the airplane for unknown reasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is possible, in the last portions of it, that the airplane was stalled and descending at a very, very high rate,\u201d said Cox, who has experience flying the 737-400.<\/p>\n<p>Air crashes are typically caused by multiple factors, \u200band investigations can take at least a year to complete.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities in Pakistan, which is leading the probe under international rules, have \u200bnot said whether they \u2060have recovered the plane\u2019s \u201cblack boxes\u201d that provide crucial data.<\/p>\n<p>The US National Transportation Safety Board said it had appointed an accredited representative to assist Pakistan in the investigation along with technical advisers from Boeing, GE Aerospace and the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n<p>The K2 Airways jet was first delivered as a passenger plane to Russia\u2019s Aeroflot in 1999 and was converted to a freighter in 2012, \u2060according to \u200bFlightradar24. It is K2 Airways\u2019 only aircraft and entered service with the carrier in 2024. Its previous flight \u200bwas on June 28, according to Flightradar24 data.<\/p>\n<p>The incident would be Pakistan\u2019s first fatal crash since 2020, when a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/06\/25\/pakistan-airliner-crashed-after-pilots-were-distracted-by-coronavirus\/\">Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 came down short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistani rescuers found the wreckage of a cargo plane in a deep-sea search operation on Wednesday, 12 hours \u200cafter it went\u00a0missing off the coast of Karachi, with efforts underway to find the five crew members who were on board, authorities said. The wreckage of the K2 Airways Boeing 737 was recovered 53 nautical miles south&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/133846012.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}