Five missing after crash; the aircraft spent 10 days in Sharjah for repairs before the return flight
Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, father-in-law of Faisal Jatoi, the co-pilot (First Officer) of the K2 Airways Boeing 737 cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea, sits with guests at his home in Karachi, Pakistan, July 8, 2026. Photo: Reuters
The family of Faisal Jatoi, the Pakistani co-pilot missing with four others after their cargo plane crashed in the Arabian Sea, faced an agonizing wait for news Thursday as rescuers continued their search.
Jatoi was co-piloting a K2 Airways Boeing 737 freighter from Sharjah in the UAE to Karachi on Tuesday night when it went down off Pakistan’s southern coast. Rescuers found the wreck in a deep sea search on Wednesday.
Jatoi’s father-in-law, Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, said the family became alarmed when they could not reach him and a Google search showed them the word “crash”.
Read: Search underway for missing Pakistan K2 Airways flight with 5 on board: PAA
“That moment felt like doomsday for us,” Bahrani said Reuters at his home in Karachi. Jatoi has a wife and a two-year-old son.
The plane, a 27-year-old Boeing 737-400 converted freighter, spent 10 days in Sharjah for repairs after delivering cargo and was awaiting a spare part from the United States before the crew could return, Bahrani said.
It reported a navigation problem at 21:18 Pakistan time (1618 GMT) en route to Karachi, the Pakistan Airports Authority said, while Flightradar24 data showed erratic altitude changes before a steep descent.
Wreckage was found 53 nautical miles (98 km) south of Ormara port on Wednesday and navy and maritime security teams are searching for the flight records.
K2 Airways said the five people on board were two pilots, two engineers and a support worker. Their status has not been officially declared.
Deep water search
A Pakistani aviation expert said the recovery could be among the most difficult in Pakistan’s recent history, with water depths in parts of the Arabian Sea ranging from about 2,500 to more than 3,500 meters.
Strong currents, poor visibility, uneven seabed terrain and changing sea conditions could complicate efforts to recover submerged wreckage and flight recorders, said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
