Families of the crew members who lost their lives in the Boeing 737 cargo plane crash off Pakistan’s coast have appealed for international assistance to recover the aircraft’s black boxes. They believe the flight recorders are essential to uncovering the cause of the tragic accident.
The K2 Airways cargo aircraft crashed into the Arabian Sea on July 7 while flying from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi. All five crew members on board were killed in the incident.
Although rescue teams recovered aircraft debris shortly after the crash, the black boxes remain missing. Aviation experts say locating the flight recorders will be extremely challenging because the aircraft came down in waters nearly 3,000 meters deep.
Experts explain that a deep-sea recovery operation would require advanced underwater equipment and could involve significant costs. Pakistan may also need technical support from foreign governments or specialist recovery teams to carry out such a mission.
Relatives of the victims have urged authorities to continue the search instead of ending recovery efforts. They believe a transparent investigation is only possible if the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are recovered.
Captain Rizwan Idris’ son, Yashib Rizwan, has called for all available resources to be used in the search. He said both local and international assistance should be considered to help recover the missing flight recorders.
The family of flight engineer Muhammad Arif Siddiqui has also supported the request for international cooperation. They believe every possible effort should be made to determine exactly what caused the accident.
Both families have already held funeral prayers after losing hope that the bodies of their loved ones would be recovered from the sea.
So far, Pakistani authorities have not provided any public update on the search operation for more than a week. Reports also indicate that companies specializing in underwater recovery have not received any official request from Pakistan for assistance.
Neither the federal government nor K2 Airways has publicly commented on whether foreign expertise will be sought to recover the aircraft.
According to Pakistan’s airport authorities, the pilots reported a navigation system issue shortly before the crash. The crew contacted air traffic control at around 9:18 p.m. Pakistan time while approaching Karachi.
Controllers attempted to assist the flight, but communication was lost only a few minutes later. Radar data showed the aircraft descending rapidly before disappearing from tracking systems.
Flight tracking information suggested the Boeing 737 first dropped nearly 5,000 feet within a minute. It then briefly climbed before entering a steep and catastrophic dive from an altitude of more than 36,000 feet.
Family members have revealed that the aircraft had remained in Sharjah for around 10 days before departure because of a maintenance issue. During that period, one of the aircraft’s inertial reference units (IRU) was reportedly replaced after a replacement component arrived from the United States.
The IRU provides important information about an aircraft’s position, speed, and orientation. Aviation specialists say a malfunction in this system can make flying more difficult, particularly during nighttime flights over open water where pilots have few visual references.
However, experts also stress that aircraft accidents rarely result from a single issue. Investigators will need evidence from the black boxes before determining whether the reported navigation problem contributed to the crash.
Previous deep-water aircraft recoveries have shown that locating black boxes is possible but often requires months of work and specialized remotely operated underwater vehicles.
Industry analysts note that Pakistan faces a difficult decision because such recovery operations are expensive. Still, families continue to insist that finding the Boeing 737 flight recorders is necessary to ensure a complete and transparent investigation.
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The appeal has renewed calls for international cooperation as relatives hope the missing black boxes will eventually provide answers about one of Pakistan’s deadliest recent cargo aviation accidents.
