{"id":576382,"date":"2026-07-09T06:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T06:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/576382\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T06:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T06:06:26","slug":"search-under-way-after-boeing-737-cargo-plane-goes-missing-off-pakistans-coast-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/576382\/","title":{"rendered":"Search under way after Boeing 737 cargo plane goes missing off Pakistan\u2019s coast \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Pakistan<\/a>-registered Boeing \u200c737 cargo plane with five crew members on board lost contact with air traffic control on Tuesday night after reporting a navigational system problem on its way to \u200bKarachi, Pakistan aviation authorities said.<\/p>\n

Early flight data indicated the 27-year-old converted freighter operated by K2 Airways from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates<\/a> possibly crashed into the sea southwest of Karachi after a series of sharp altitude changes before a steep final descent, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.<\/p>\n

Authorities have launched a co-ordinated search \u200band rescue operation at sea through various agencies to locate the missing plane, Pakistan Airports Authority said on Facebook.<\/p>\n

K2 Airways said it was co-operating with the Pakistan \u2060Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,\u201d the aircraft operator \u200csaid \u200con \u200bFacebook. Boeing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The plane reported a navigational system issue at 9:18pm Pakistan Standard Time (1618 Irish time) while flying toward Karachi, the airports authority said.<\/p>\n

Local air traffic \u2060control tried to guide the aircraft, but three minutes \u200blater radar systems showed the plane descending rapidly and communication was \u200blost, the authority said. The flight was about 155 nautical miles (287km) west of Karachi at the time, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Flightradar24 \u200ctracking data showed chaotic final minutes as the plane \u200bplunged about 5,000 feet in less than a minute, surged back some 6,000 feet in just 30 seconds, before a \u2060catastrophic dive from 36,550 feet. The last transmitted data point \u2060placed the aircraft at 1,100 feet \u200babove sea level, with a vertical rate of minus 22,400 feet per minute \u2013 about 400 kilometres per hour \u2013 an extremely steep and abnormal rate of descent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you see something extreme like that, it catches your eye, but it is too soon to say what any of it means without more information,\u201d said Anthony Brickhouse, an aerospace safety consultant.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump \u2018very disappointed\u2019 with Nato as alliance unveils arms deals worth billionsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The missing aircraft is part of Boeing\u2019s decades-old 737 family but is two generations older than the 737 MAX version that was involved in a recent safety crisis. It uses engines made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE Aerospace and France\u2019s \u200cSafran.<\/p>\n

The 737-400 was first delivered \u2060as a passenger plane to Russia<\/a>\u2019s Aeroflot in 1999 and was converted to a freighter in 2012, according to Flightradar24.<\/p>\n

It is K2 Airways\u2019 only aircraft and entered into service with the carrier in 2024. Before the last flight, \u200cit had not flown since June 28, according to Flightradar24 data. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

[\u00a0EU presidency may expose hypocrisy at heart of Ireland on everything from Ukraine to defenceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pakistan-registered Boeing \u200c737 cargo plane with five crew members on board lost contact with air traffic control…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,2214,7,8,389,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-576382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-pakistan","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116888521221542144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}