The National Transportation Safety Board temporarily removed public access to parts of its docket system after AI-generated reconstructions of cockpit audio from a UPS crash circulated online, the agency said. The move followed researchers and hobbyists using a publicly posted spectrogram image and transcript to approximate the cockpit voice recorder for UPS Flight 2976.
What happened
The NTSB had posted an accident docket that included a spectrogram image derived from the flight’s voice recorder, along with a transcript.
Observers noted that spectrograms encode sonic information visually, and online users combined that image with the transcript and AI tools to recreate audio approximations.
Why the NTSB acted
Federal law prohibits the NTSB from including cockpit audio recordings in its public docket; the reconstructed audio nevertheless spread on the internet.
After discovering the recreated audio circulation, the agency restricted public access to its docket system while it reviewed affected materials.
Agency response
The NTSB restored public access to the docket system on Friday but kept 42 investigations closed for review, including the inquiry into UPS Flight 2976.
The agency posted notices about the review on its official social account.
How the reconstruction worked
A spectrogram converts audio frequencies and amplitudes into an image that visually represents sound.
People used the spectrogram image, the public transcript, and AI tools to generate approximations of the cockpit audio.
Tools and public reaction
Posts on social media indicated creators used AI tools such as Codex to assist reconstruction.
Observers and the agency flagged the incident as a privacy and legal concern because federal rules bar public release of cockpit recordings.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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