A cargo plane flying from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan disappeared over the Arabian Sea late Tuesday, and a multi-agency search is now underway for five crew members. The final data from the aircraft shows something went catastrophically wrong in its last minutes.
The plane is a K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo jet, operating as flight KTA1732 and registered AP-BOI. It was flying from Sharjah to Karachi when it was reported missing on July 7, 2026.
The last minutes
The aircraft reported a navigation system fault to air traffic controllers shortly before contact was lost. It was last recorded about 155 nautical miles off Karachi.
Then came the numbers that tell the grim part of the story. The final data point was recorded at 16:21 UTC, with the aircraft at 1,100 feet above sea level and a reported vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute.
To put that in plain terms: that is an almost vertical plunge toward the water. A descent rate like that in the final seconds is not a controlled emergency landing. It’s a loss of control.
The search
Pakistan’s Rescue Coordination Center activated a search involving both military and civilian assets. So far that includes:
- The Pakistan Navy frigate PNS Zulfiqar, diverted toward the last known position
- A Navy ATR aircraft
- Pakistan Air Force assets
- A Pakistan National Shipping Corporation vessel
As of the latest reports, authorities have not confirmed a crash site or located any wreckage. Five crew members were aboard. There were no passengers, as this was a cargo flight.
What we know about the aircraft
The Boeing 737-400 is an older-generation narrowbody, and the “BDSF” designation on this airframe means it’s a passenger jet that was converted to a freighter, a common second life for aging 737s. These converted cargo 737s are workhorses across Asia and the Middle East, hauling freight on short and medium routes like the Sharjah-to-Karachi run.
K2 Airways said it is cooperating with authorities as the search continues.
What happens next
The immediate priority is finding the aircraft and the five crew. After that, investigators will want the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, if they can be recovered from the seabed, to understand what the reported navigation fault actually was and whether it’s connected to the violent descent that followed.
A navigation system fault on its own doesn’t cause a plane to fall out of the sky. Investigators will be looking at what else was happening in the cockpit in those final minutes, and whether the crew was dealing with more than one problem at once.
The human toll
For now, the story is five people and their families waiting for word, and search vessels combing 155 nautical miles of open water off the Karachi coast. Cargo crews fly these routes in relative anonymity, and it usually takes a disappearance like this for anyone to notice the flight ever existed.
Authorities have not released the identities of the crew. The cause remains under investigation.
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Related: Five Passengers Had to Restrain Their Own Pilot for 40 Minutes After He Had a Seizure Mid-Flight
