ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's Navy on Wednesday located the wreckage of a missing K2 Airways cargo Boeing 737 aircraft in the Arabian Sea after a 12-hour search and rescue operation, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said in a statement.

The wreckage was found about 53 nautical miles south of Ormara, a coastal town in Gwadar district of the country's southwestern Balochistan province, the statement said.

Air and sea assets from the Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency were deployed in the operation.

Search and rescue efforts are continuing to locate the five missing crew members, while further details will be released as the operation progresses, the PAA said.

The cargo aircraft, flying from Sharjah to Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, went missing on Tuesday night after reporting a navigational system malfunction, according to the PAA.

The aircraft was being guided by Karachi Area Control Center before it suddenly descended, changed heading sharply, and disappeared from radar and radio contact about 155 nautical miles west of Karachi, the PAA said in an earlier statement.