Five missing after accident; The plane spent 10 days in Sharjah for repairs before the return flight.
Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, father-in-law of Faisal Jatoi, 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 along with four others after their cargo plane crashed in the Arabian Sea, faced an agonizing wait for news on Thursday, as rescuers continued their search.
Jatoi was co-piloting a K2 Airways Boeing 737 freighter from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi on Tuesday night when it crashed off Pakistan’s southern coast. Rescuers found the remains on Wednesday during a deep-sea search operation.
Jatoi’s father-in-law, Ghulam Nabi Bahrani, said the family became alarmed when they could not locate him and a Google search showed them the word “accident”.
Read: Search begins for missing Pakistani K2 Airways plane with five people on board: PAA
“That moment seemed apocalyptic to 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 into a freighter, spent 10 days in Sharjah for repairs after delivering cargo, waiting for a replacement part from the United States before the crew could return, Bahrani said.
It reported a navigation problem at 9:18 p.m. Pakistan time (1618 GMT) on its way to Karachi, the Pakistan Airports Authority said, while Flightradar24 data showed erratic changes in altitude before a steep descent.
The wreckage of the plane was found Wednesday 53 nautical miles (98 kilometers) south of the port of Ormara, and maritime safety and navy teams are searching for the flight recorders.
K2 Airways said the five people on board were two pilots, two engineers and one support staff member. His status has not been officially declared.
Deep sea search
A Pakistani aviation expert said the recovery could be one of the most difficult in Pakistan’s recent history, with water depths in parts of the Arabian Sea ranging from about 2,500 meters to more than 3,500 metres.
Strong currents, poor visibility, uneven seafloor terrain and changes in sea state could complicate efforts to recover the submerged wreckage and flight recorders, said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
