Five crew members are missing after a cargo plane disappeared while nearing the port of Karachi

Civilian and navy searchers off Pakistan’s coast on Wednesday located and recovered wreckage of a cargo plane that disappeared while approaching the southern port of Karachi, and a search continues for five missing crew members, officials said.

The aircraft operated by the private carrier K2 Airways had departed from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and reported a navigational system problem before losing contact with air traffic control late on Tuesday.

The Pakistani navy and civilian teams in planes and ships found the wreckage after about 12 hours of searching in the Arabian Sea, Pakistan’s Airports Authority said in a post on social media.

Retired Rear Admiral Faisal Shah said searchers were dealing with rough seas and that they were still looking for the main wreckage of the plane, which could prove much more difficult to find because the area is believed to be about 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) deep, requiring specialised equipment.

He said recovering debris does not necessarily reveal the aircraft’s exact crash site because ocean currents, waves and wind can carry the floating wreckage far from where the aircraft went down.

In a statement, K2 Airways identified the missing crew as Captain Muhammad Rizwan Idris, First Officer Faisal Jatoi, flight engineers Muhammad Hamid and Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, and aircraft loader Muhammad Taufiq Khan.