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Pakistan searches for Boeing cargo plane missing over Arabian Sea

Pakistani authorities located the wreckage of a K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 that went missing over the Arabian Sea. The plane had reported a navigation problem before losing contact. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed search and rescue operations and expressed sympathy for the five crew members.

By Tertius News AI Desk 2 outlets · 3 articles Version 1 Coverage Jul 8, 2026 Published Aug 15

Lead

Pakistani authorities have located the wreckage of a K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 aircraft that went missing over the Arabian Sea on Tuesday night. The Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said the wreckage was recovered from 53 nautical miles south of Ormara, a coastal town in Balochistan. The plane, en route from Sharjah to Karachi, lost contact with air traffic control after the pilot reported a navigation problem. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed search and rescue operations and expressed grief over the incident.

Coverage Comparison

According to the Pakistan Airports Authority, the wreckage was located by the Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency after about 12 hours of search operations. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-400 freighter operated by Karachi-based K2 Airways, disappeared from radar roughly 300 kilometres west of Karachi. The PAA said the plane reported a navigational system issue at 9:18pm and was promptly guided by the Karachi Area Control Centre. However, at 9:21pm, the aircraft was observed on radar rapidly descending and making a sharp change in heading, after which radar contact and communication were lost approximately 287 kilometres west of Karachi.

Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24, cited by Al Jazeera, showed the plane losing nearly 1,525 metres of altitude in less than a minute before climbing about 1,830 metres in the next 30 seconds. It then entered a final, near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 metres. Its last transmitted position placed it at 335 metres, descending at 22,400 feet per minute. Al Jazeera reported that security sources said a Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and two navy aircraft are participating in the search.

Key Claims

The Pakistan Airports Authority said the wreckage was located and identified 53 nautical miles south of Ormara.
The aircraft, registered as AP-BOI, entered service with K2 Airways in 2024. According to FlightRadar, it was a Boeing 737-4M0(BDSF) originally delivered to Aeroflot in 1999, later operated by Garuda Indonesia, and converted into a freighter in 2012, subsequently operating for TNT Airways and ASL Airlines.

The pilot reported a navigation problem and requested assistance from the area control centre before contact was lost, as reported by the PAA.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the Civil Aviation Authority, the Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Air Force to intensify search and rescue operations. He also expressed grief and sympathies to the families of the five crew members.

President Asif Ali Zardari also expressed concern and offered condolences to the families, according to a statement from the President House.

K2 Airways is a private airline based in Karachi, established in May 2018 after being granted a charter licence.

The aircraft was reportedly the only plane in the K2 Airways fleet, according to Al Jazeera.

No survivors have been found. K2 Airways said in a statement that the company is fully cooperating with authorities and praying for the safety of colleagues.

Perspectives

Government of Pakistan: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the CAA, Pakistan Navy and Air Force to intensify search and rescue operations and later expressed grief and sympathies to the families of the missing crew. President Zardari expressed concern and hoped for a successful operation.

Pakistan Airports Authority: The PAA provided details of the loss of contact, confirmed the location of wreckage, and guided air traffic control during the incident.

K2 Airways: The carrier expressed its sorrow and cooperation with authorities, stating that it continues to pray for the safety of its colleagues.

How each outlet told it

Al Jazeera as of Jul 8, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC

Framing: Missing aircraft search — Concerned

Facts Included:

Plane's altitude loss and final descent details
Search operation details, including participating vessels and aircraft
Aircraft's history, including previous operators and storage
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the incident

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Dawn as of Jul 8, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

Framing: Search and rescue operations — Informative

Facts Included:

Pakistan Airports Authority located wreckage of K2 Airways' cargo Boeing 737 aircraft
Wreckage recovered from 53 nautical miles south of Ormara
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed search and rescue operations
Aircraft lost contact while approaching Pakistani airspace
Pilot reported navigation problem during flight
Aircraft registered as AP-BOI, entered service with K2 Airways in 2024

Read the source article →

Dawn as of Jul 8, 2026, 8:31 AM UTC

Framing: Search and rescue operations — Informative

Facts Included:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed search and rescue operations
Aircraft lost contact while approaching Pakistani airspace
Pilot reported navigation problem during flight
Aircraft registered as AP-BOI, entered service with K2 Airways in 2024

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimThe Pakistan Airports Authority located wreckage of K2 Airways' cargo Boeing 737 aircraft. The wreckage was recovered from 53 nautical miles south of Ormara.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Dawn as of Jul 8, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC
ClaimPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed search and rescue operations.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of Jul 8, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe aircraft lost contact while approaching Pakistani airspace. The pilot had reported a navigation problem during the flight and requested assistance from the area control centre.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of Jul 8, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe aircraft, registered as AP-BOI, entered service with K2 Airways in 2024.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of Jul 8, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe plane lost nearly 1,525 metres of altitude in less than a minute before climbing about 1,830 metres in the next 30 seconds. It then entered a final, near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 metres.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Al Jazeera as of Jul 8, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC
ClaimA Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and two navy aircraft are taking part in the search.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Al Jazeera as of Jul 8, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC
ClaimPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the incident and offered his sympathies to the families of the missing crew members.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Al Jazeera as of Jul 8, 2026, 10:01 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim

Transparency & Audit Trail

2 outlets · 3 articles consulted: Al Jazeera, Dawn 7 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-15