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AI is being used to resurrect the voices of dead pilots
In Brief Posted: 4:03 PM PDT · May 22, 2026 Image Credits:Stephen Cohen / Getty Images In the latest sign of these AI-heavy times, the National Transportation Safety Board temporarily removed access to its docket system after discovering that voices of pilots who were killed in a UPS plane crash last year had been recreated using AI and were circulating on the internet. NTSB is prohibited by federal law from including cockpit audio recordings in its docket system, which otherwise contains troves of data on investigations and has historically been open to the public. But the accident docket for this flight included a spectrogram file of the voice recorder. A spectrogram uses a mathematical process to turn sound signals, including low and high frequencies, into an image. Scott Manley, a popular YouTuber channel who combines physics, astronomy, and video games, noted on X that it could be possible to reconstruct audio from the megabytes of data encoded in that image. And that’s what happened. People took the spectrogram, along with the publicly available transcript, to create approximations of the cockpit voice recorder audio from UPS flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky, according to the NTSB. They used AI tools like Codex, according to posts on social media. The agency restored public access to the docket system on Friday except to 42 investigations, including the one related to Flight 2976, until those reviews have been completed. Topics Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Latest in Transportation
US scrambles to stop Internet users re-creating dead pilots' voices
What began as a morbid experiment by internet sleuths has now triggered an unprecedented government shutdown. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)... What began as a morbid experiment by internet sleuths has now triggered an unprecedented government shutdown. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has abruptly suspended public access to its entire database of civil transportation accidents—because users used AI tools to recreate the voices of dead pilots from the final seconds of a fatal cargo plane crash. The move has sent shockwaves through the aviation community, raising urgent questions about the limits of technology, the sanctity of tragedy, and the future of public transparency. How AI Users Recreated the Voices of Dead Pilots According to reports, internet users accessed publicly available documents from the NTSB's online docket system, which contains factual reports and evidence from crash investigations. Using these materials—which included transcripts and technical data—they employed AI voice synthesis software to reconstruct the pilots' voices from the final moments of a cargo plane crash. The recreated audio, which captured the last seconds of the pilots' lives, was then shared online, sparking outrage and a swift government response. Why This Matters Right Now This isn't just about one crash. The NTSB's decision to suspend public access to its database affects every family, journalist, and researcher who relies on this information for accountability and closure. The core issue is a clash between two powerful forces: the public's right to know and the privacy of the dead. Federal law explicitly prohibits the public release of audio from cockpit voice recorders. But AI has now made it possible to reconstruct those voices from other public data, creating a legal and ethical gray area that the government is scrambling to address. How the Incident or Update Unfolded The NTSB, which usually shares detailed factual reports and evidence from its investigations, announced on May 21 that its online docket system was "temporarily unavailable." The agency stated it was reviewing the publicly available materials that had enabled people to recreate the cockpit audio. The move was a direct response to the AI-generated recreation, which the NTSB views as a violation of federal law and the privacy of the deceased pilots and their families. Who Is Affected and What Officials Are Saying The immediate impact is on the families of th...
NTSB takes crash database offline after AI recreates cockpit audio
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NTSB: UPS Cockpit Voice Recordings Fabricated With AI
When the National Transportation Safety Board releases an accident investigation docket, it often contains a transcript of the conversations captured on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR)— but never the actual recording. Yet on Thursday the NTSB announced it had become aware of someone using artificial intelligence (AI) to reconstruct approximations of CVR audio from sound spectrum imagery released as part of the agency’s investigations, including the ongoing probe of the 2025 crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky. The NTSB released a statement Thursday addressing the issue. “The NTSB does not release cockpit audio recordings,” the statement read. “Federal law prohibits such public release due to the highly sensitive nature of verbal communications inside the cockpit. The NTSB takes these privacy restrictions seriously. The NTSB docket system is temporarily unavailable as we examine the scope of the issue and evaluate solutions. We hope to restore access to the docket system as soon as possible.” READ MORE: UPS Crash Hearing Scrutinizes MD-11 Design Component READ MORE: NTSB Focuses on Maintenance Procedures on First Day of UPS Crash Hearing The agency spent the past two days in a hearing about the November 4 crash of the MD-11 that killed the flight crew of three and 12 more people on the ground. The hearing included a release of accident video that depicts the moment the left engine sheared off the wing upon takeoff, resulting in a fire. The CVR transcript demonstrates the crew were trying to get the airplane to climb but could not. The aircraft crashed in an industrial area off the end of the runway. During the hearing the agency heard testimony from several stakeholders, including Boeing, the manufacturer of the MD-11. It focused on the spherical bearing and lugs that hold the engine mounts on the wing. According to information contained in the accident docket, both Boeing and UPS were aware of cracks forming in the bearing and bearing migration as early as 2008 and 2011. The NTSB’s final report on the probable cause of the crash is still several months away from being released.
