CALGARY — A cargo plane is suspected to have crashed in the Arabian Sea after showing to have descended rapidly and then lost radar contact.The plane was a cargo aircraft being operated by Pakistani cargo airline K2 Airways under the callsign KTA1732; it has been reported that there were five crew aboard the aircraft when it lost contact with air traffic control.The aircraft lost contact and failed to land as scheduled on a routine flight from Sharjah, in the UAE, to the Pakistani city of Karachi.The Pakistani Airport Authority (PAA) said on Tuesday that a search and rescue operation was underway to search for the aircraft and its crew.Data obtained from flight tracking websites indicate that the aircraft had a sudden loss of altitude, followed by an attempt to climb, and then another significant drop in altitude before the plane could no longer be tracked.The last known position of the aircraft was about 155 nautical miles off the west coast of Pakistan.“However, at time 2121 PST, aircraft was observed on radar rapidly descending and with rapid heading change, subsequently radar contact and communication was lost approximately 155 nautical miles west of Karachi,” the PAA said in a statement.The final vertical rate reported on flight radar sites shows the plane was dropping at a rate of 22,400 feet per minute.The plane involved in the incident was a Boeing 737-4M0 and, according to the K2 Airways website, was the only airplane that the company operated.The Boeing 737 Classic, as it is known, has a long history of accidents and, as of 2024, has accounted for 494 fatalities.
