Pakistan Finds Wreckage of K2 Airways 737 as Searches for Five Crew Continue

Overview

• The K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 reported a navigation-system problem Tuesday and lost radio and radar contact minutes later while flying from Sharjah to Karachi.
• Rescue teams located and recovered wreckage about 98 km south of Ormara roughly 12 hours after the disappearance, but the five crew members remain missing and search operations continue.
• Independent tracking data from Flightradar24 show abrupt altitude changes in the minutes before the loss of contact and a final descent rate of about 22,400 feet per minute that investigators describe as highly unusual.
• The aircraft is a 27-year-old 737-400 converted to a freighter and is the sole plane in K2 Airways' fleet, facts that Pakistani officials say will be examined alongside maintenance records and recovered debris.
• Pakistan has mobilized navy, air force and maritime assets and assigned international experts from the NTSB, Boeing, GE/CFM and the FAA to assist in a probe that will hinge on recovery and analysis of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.