An urgent search has been launched after a plane with five people on board disappeared over the Arabian Sea.

The alarm was raised yesterday evening after the K2 Airways cargo plane vanished from radars off the coast of Pakistan,carrying five crew.

The Boeing 737 had taken off from Sharjah,United Arab Emirates,bound for the port city of Karachi,when it began to descend rapidly.

Plane tracking website Flightradar24 said the aircraft lost altitude,then climbed again before a second ‘dramatic’ loss of altitude.

The cargo operator’s only aircraft,the Boeing 737,is missing with five crew on board(Picture: K2 Airways)

The flight KTA1732 last pinged on radar at 16:21 UTC before it fell down from over 36,000 ft at a speed of 240mph.

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.At this point,it was around 178 miles west of Karachi.Aircraft in the area,including the K2 plane,had experienced GPS interference,Flightradar said.GPS jamming can be caused by intentional and atmospheric conditions,and it is not known what may have triggered the interference.The crew members on board included a pilot,first officer,a load master and two engineers.Aviation experts have been left confused over what happened to the aircraft.Imran Aslam,an aviation specialist,told ARY News: ‘I still cannot understand how the plane went down so abruptly instead of gliding.’The carrier said in a statement: ‘K2 Airways is fully cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies.A map shows where the flight KTA1732 was last spotted before it vanished between UAE and Pakistan (Picture: Flightradar24)‘We continue to pray,earnestly,for the safety of our colleagues.’K2 Airways was established in 2018 in Pakistan.It operates to four destinations in Asia and the Middle East using its one Boeing 737,which is now missing.It began operating the 27-year-old plane in 2024.Pakistan’s aviation has been hit by deadly crashes in recent years.In May 2020,a Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 from Lahore to Karachi crashed on approach to the airport,killing 97 people on board and one person on the ground.Two people survived the tragedy,which has been blamed on an engine failure.Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .For more stories like this,check our news page.