KARACHI: Families of crew members killed in the July 7 crash of a K2 Airways cargo plane on Saturday urged the government to seek foreign help to recover the wreckage and flight recorders, saying more than 40 days later they still lacked answers, compensation and death certificates.
The Boeing 737 cargo aircraft, operated by Pakistani freight carrier K2 Airways, was flying from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Karachi when it crashed into deep waters off the Balochistan coast. Minor debris was recovered from the surface, but the main fuselage, cockpit and flight recorders remain underwater, while the crew members’ bodies have not been found.
At a news conference at the Karachi Press Club a day earlier, relatives called on the government to bring in foreign companies equipped with deep-sea diving systems and remotely operated vehicles to locate the wreckage and recover the black box.
They said the delay had left them unable to perform final rites or complete legal and financial formalities linked to the deaths.
Speaking to Arab News after the news conference, Muhammad Asad Hamid Khan, son of flight engineer Muhammad Hamid Khan, said the families had yet to receive compensation and were also struggling to obtain basic documentation.
“The airplane must be insured, and there are different policies for the people on board, yet we have received zero compensation till now,” Asad noted. “Our father’s death certificate is not done yet, and his personal belongings have been seized.”
He said the families believed K2 Airways should bear the cost of the deep-sea search and complained that the airline’s management had not adequately engaged with them since the crash.
Arab News reached out to K2 Airways CEO Tariq Raja for comment on the families’ allegations, the cost of the recovery operation and insurance payments, but did not receive a response before publication.
Muhammad Shaheer Rizwan, son of the aircraft’s captain, Muhammad Rizwan Idrees, said recovering the flight recorders was essential to establishing the cause of the crash.
“It is the fundamental responsibility of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the state to give us a clear picture of what happened,” Rizwan told Arab News.
He also called for investigators to examine the airline’s operational and maintenance history before the crash.
“We have learned that K2 Airways suspended its operations in July 2025 and only resumed them in January 2026,” Rizwan said. “Investigators must thoroughly examine this technical and operational gap to see whether maintenance issues or operational oversights contributed to this tragedy.”
The families said at Friday’s news conference that the passage of more than 40 days without the recovery of the crew or aircraft had left them feeling their relatives had been forgotten.
Local search efforts have been hampered by the depth of the waters off the Balochistan coast, according to the families, who said Pakistan should seek assistance from foreign salvage specialists with the equipment needed to reach the wreckage.
Asad said the prolonged uncertainty had compounded the families’ grief.
“We are taxpayers of this country, yet no government official has come to us, and the CEO is simply not bothered,” he added. “It’s bad for our future generations.”
