Karachi: A Pakistani cargo plane en route from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan disappeared over the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, the Pakistan Airports Authority said in a statement.

According to Anadolu Agency, the K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft was traveling from Sharjah to Karachi when it vanished from radar approximately 300 kilometers west of Karachi. The incident occurred at 9.21 pm local time (1621GMT), when the aircraft was observed on radar rapidly descending with a rapid heading change. Subsequently, radar contact and communication were lost around 155 nautical miles west of Karachi.

In response to the incident, authorities initiated a search-and-rescue operation at sea through various agencies to locate the missing aircraft, as noted in the statement. The aircraft was carrying five crew members at the time it went missing.