The voices of the pilots in the final seconds of the fatal cargo plane crash have been recreated by internet explorers using software and artificial intelligence tools. The release of the reconstructed recordings prompted a US government agency to suspend all public access to its database of civilian traffic accidents – because federal law prohibits investigators from releasing audio from cockpit voice recorders to the public.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) commonly shares factual reports and evidence gathered from investigations into airplane crashes and other civilian transportation incidents. But on May 21, the NTSB announced that online docket system It was “temporarily unavailable” containing such information as it reviewed publicly available materials that allow people to recreate cockpit voice recordings from plane crashes.
“The NTSB is aware that advances in image recognition and computational methods have allowed individuals to reconstruct cockpit voice recorder sound estimates from sound spectrum images released as part of NTSB investigations, including the ongoing investigation into last year’s crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky.” NTSB statement. “NTSB is not releasing cockpit voice recordings.”
UPS Flight 2976 was a United Parcel Service MD-11F freighter crashed shortly after takeoff After a structural failure caused the engine to physically separate on takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky on November 4, 2025. Three pilots were killed, including the co-pilot. Other 12 people on the ground died and 23 people were injured.
US Congress a federal law In 1990, the NTSB was prohibited from publicly sharing any part of the cockpit voice or video recorder to protect the privacy of aircrews. The law came after airline pilots backtracked on the airing of a scandalous TV channel’s cockpit chat. August 1988 crash Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
