NTSB Pulls Docket Offline After AI Recreated Pilots' Last 30 Seconds From Spectrograms
Updated
Updated · Engadget · May 23
NTSB Pulls Docket Offline After AI Recreated Pilots' Last 30 Seconds From Spectrograms
1 articles · Updated · Engadget · May 23
The NTSB temporarily took its public accident docket system offline after online users reconstructed approximate cockpit audio from files in the UPS Flight 2976 investigation.
A spectrogram PDF and black-box transcript in the docket let people use AI tools to recreate the final 30 seconds of the flight, despite federal law barring release of actual cockpit voice recordings.
The November 4, 2025 crash happened during takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky, when an engine separated from the wing, killing three crew members and 12 people on the ground.
The board said it is assessing the scope of the problem and possible fixes; one X user said OpenAI's Codex rebuilt audio from the spectrogram in 10 minutes.
The episode highlights how newer AI tools can turn previously low-risk technical disclosures into sensitive audio approximations, potentially forcing changes to future crash-report releases.
How can safety agencies be transparent when AI turns public data into private grief?
When AI can resurrect voices from images, are any of our privacy laws still safe?