A K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 freighter went missing over the Arabian Sea late on Tuesday night, triggering a large-scale air and sea search off the coast of Karachi. The Pakistan-registered cargo jet, operating flight KTA-1732 from Sharjah to Karachi with five crew members on board, lost contact with air traffic control roughly 155 nautical miles west of the city.
According to Pakistan's aviation authorities, the crew reported a navigational system malfunction at around 9:18 pm local time as the aircraft approached Pakistani airspace. The Karachi Area Control Centre provided navigational assistance, but at 9:21 pm controllers observed the aircraft entering a rapid descent accompanied by a sudden change of heading on radar. Radar contact and radio communication were lost shortly afterward.
The Pakistan Airports Authority activated its Rescue Coordination Centre and launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation drawing on both aviation and maritime assets. At the time of writing, the aircraft had not been located and the status of the five crew members remained unconfirmed.
The aircraft involved, registered AP-BOI, was a Boeing 737-400 that had been converted into a freighter. It was originally built as a passenger jet and delivered to Aeroflot in 1999, before joining Garuda Indonesia in 2004. In 2012 it was converted into a Boeing Converted Freighter, and it subsequently flew for TNT Airways and ASL Airlines before joining K2 Airways in 2024.
The 737-400 is a stretched member of the Boeing 737 Classic family, first delivered in the late 1980s. Although the type has largely retired from passenger service, converted 737-400 freighters remain common in regional cargo networks, valued for their payload capacity, mature maintenance ecosystem and relatively low acquisition cost compared with newer freighters.
K2 Airways is a Pakistani cargo operator that began flying the type in 2024. Freight corridors between the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan are heavily trafficked, carrying e-commerce shipments, industrial components and general cargo between the Gulf and South Asia.
The cause of the disappearance has not been established, and authorities have cautioned against speculation while the search continues. Any investigation would be expected to examine the reported navigational system fault alongside radar and flight-data records once wreckage is recovered.
Sources: Simple Flying, Aviation24. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
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