Haunting final words of pilot after wreckage of crashed plane found

The Boeing 737 crashed on Tuesday

The alert was raised on Tuesday evening (7 July) as Flightradar24 put out a post saying that the aircraft had been reported missing with data suggesting a possible crash.

Not long after, it was reported that a search and rescue mission was underway to find the aircraft.

An image of the missing aircraft in question. Credit: Adobe Stock.

The plane in question is a Boeing 737-400 belonging to Pakistani cargo airline K2.

Five people were reported to have been onboard the plane.

The plane went missing off the coast of Karachi, its destination, after departing from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

The wreckage was later found after a 12 hour search near the coast of Pakistan.

Pilot's last transmitted words

Now, the final transmission from the pilot has been revealed and was simply, “rolling or floating”.

These words suggest the plane was proving difficult to control, with "rolling" a term meaning to tilt on the horizontal axis.

Rolling is normally a regular procedure when turning a plane as it banks, however, it can also suggest out of control flight systems.

"Floating" is slightly more confusing as this is a term mostly used when landing.

If a plane struggles to touch down when landing, or bounces upon making contact on the ground it is "floating".

What would be strange about this is that the aircraft was at cruising altitude at this time and was not preparing to land, suggesting the pilot could have meant something else.

Flight tracking data shows the Boeing 737 lost altitude rapidly, dropping from around 35,000ft to just under 30,000ft in 30 seconds.

It quickly regained altitude before dropping again and losing radar contact.

Pakistan's airport authority said that the plane rapidly descended and lost contact with air traffic controllers on Tuesday at 21:21 local time (17:21 BST).

It had reported a navigation system problem minutes before its descent, the airport authority said.

In preliminary data seen on Flightradar24, the plane recorded a sharp fluctuation in altitude before a steep descent.

As per records, the aircraft is the only plane in the private cargo airline's fleet.

Statement from airline

In a statement on Wednesday, K2 Airways identified the five crew members on board the aircraft, and said it was "fully cooperating with the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority and other government agencies".

The full statement read: "K2 Airways' cargo aircraft Boeing 737-400 Registration AP-BOI, which was going from Sharjah to Karachi last night, lost contact with Air Traffic Control at about 21:21 hours according to Pakistan time.

"We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues," the statement added.

It named the crew as Mohammad Rizwan Idrees (Pilot in Command), Faisal Mehmood (First Officer), Muhammad Toufique Khan (Load Master), Arif Siddiqui (Engineer), Mohammad Hamid (Engineer).