US scrambles to stop Internet users re-creating dead pilots’ voices
Ars Technica AI · Jeremy Hsu · 2026-05-22
Internet users reconstructed cockpit voice recorder audio from fatal crash investigations using AI tools applied to NTSB-published spectrograms, prompting the NTSB to suspend public access to its entire civil aviation accident database.
Appears in
Extraction
Topics: voice-synthesisai-regulationaviation-safetydata-access-policy
Claims
- AI image-recognition tools allowed individuals to reconstruct approximate cockpit audio from spectrogram images published in NTSB investigation reports.
- Federal law prohibits the NTSB from publicly releasing actual cockpit voice recorder audio.
- The NTSB suspended its entire public accident docket system in response to the reconstructions.
- The trigger incident was the 2025 crash of UPS flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky.
- The reconstructions were circulated online before the NTSB took action.
Key quotes
The NTSB is aware that advances in image recognition and computational methods have enabled individuals to reconstruct approximations of cockpit voice recorder audio from sound spectrum imagery released as part of NTSB investigations, including the ongoing investigation of the crash last year of UPS flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The NTSB does not release cockpit audio recordings.