K2 Airways Crash Families Call for International Search as Pakistan Provides No Update

Relatives of the five crew members aboard a K2 Airways Boeing 737 cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea off Pakistan on July 7 are urging an international search effort to recover the flight recorders, Al-Monitor reported. Debris from the freighter was recovered shortly after the crash, but the water depth at the site is about 3,000 meters.

The locator beacons on the 27-year-old plane were designed to transmit pings for only 30 days.

The pilots reported a navigational system issue at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan time while flying from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi. Local air traffic control attempted to guide the plane, but three minutes later radar showed a rapid descent and communication was lost.

Flightradar24 data showed the plane plunged about 5,000 feet in less than a minute, climbed about 6,000 feet in 30 seconds, and then entered a catastrophic dive from 36,550 feet. The plane had spent about 10 days in Sharjah awaiting a replacement part from the U.S. after a maintenance fault.

One of the plane's two inertial reference units was replaced in Sharjah before departure. Yashib Rizwan, the eldest son of Captain Rizwan Idris, said the search must continue with all available local and international resources. "For us a transparent investigation is key," he said.

Abdur Rafay Siddiqui, son of engineer Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, also called for international assistance if needed. Both families have held funeral prayers after losing hope the bodies would be recovered. Pakistan has provided no public update on the search for a week.