“The Cockpit Went Silent… Then Came That Sound” — Final 10 Seconds of Air India Flight Terrified Investigators
Even seasoned investigators admit: nothing could have prepared them for what they heard.
When officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) sat down to listen to the cockpit voice recorder of the ill-fated Air India Express Flight IX1344, they expected distress, confusion — maybe even chaos. But what they heard in the final ten seconds of the flight sent chills down the room.
“The cockpit went dead silent… and then came that sound,” one investigator recalled, speaking under condition of anonymity. “We’ve reviewed hundreds of crash tapes, but nothing ever felt like this. It was too human. Too real.”
A Descent Into Silence
Flight IX1344 was making its final approach to Kozhikode International Airport on a rainy night in August 2020. The Boeing 737 had already attempted one landing but aborted due to poor visibility and tailwinds. On the second try, the plane touched down — but too far down the wet tabletop runway.
According to the CVR transcript, the pilots — Captain Deepak Sathe and First Officer Akhilesh Kumar — were focused, composed, and calmly working through procedures.
But around 10 seconds before impact, something changed.
There were no more words.
The final exchange had been logged. Then came a pause — heavy, suffocating silence that investigators described as “unnatural.”
The Sound No One Can Unhear
What followed was a sudden, brief exhale — a human breath caught on the mic — and then a sharp, metallic crunch, followed by a horrific series of structural groans, like the aircraft itself was screaming.
Then: nothing.
“We had to stop the playback,” another member of the team said. “One of us walked out. It wasn’t just the crash — it was the acceptance in that breath. They knew.”
The investigators confirmed that both pilots died on impact, along with 19 passengers. More than 100 others were injured, many severely.
Questions That Still Haunt
The crash has since been attributed to pilot misjudgment amid poor weather, compounded by the runway’s design — a controversial tabletop structure that offers little room for error.
But for those who listened to the final seconds, the technical explanation is only part of the story.
“What we heard wasn’t just data,” the DGCA official said. “It was a human moment — terrifying, brave, and heartbreakingly quiet.”
In aviation safety briefings, that ten-second window has become a case study — not only in aerodynamics and runway friction, but in the emotional toll of flying into the unknown.