AI was used to recreate deadly plane crash audio, prompting regulators to step in

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is suspending the release of previously public information related to its investigations, after individuals used AI to recreate the last words of deceased pilots.

The independent agency was informed that an AI-generated rendering depicting cockpit audio from UPS Flight 2976 had been created and released, using only written materials submitted at the recent hearing, CNN reported. The November 4 accident resulted in the deaths of three crew members and 12 civilians on the ground.

“We show our work and we’ve been doing this type of thing for years. No one knew it was possible to recreate audio from an image,” an NTSB spokesperson told CNN. “The NTSB is seeking to ensure that there is nothing else in the record that could compromise anyone’s privacy…now that we understand the possibility of digital recreation.”

Under federal law, the NTSB does not release cockpit voice recordings to the public during investigations of fatal plane crashes. Instead, the agency will submit a transcript to the public record and — as was the case for Flight 2976 — an audio spectrogram, which visually represents sound frequencies, duration and amplitude in a given clip.

The individuals were able to use the spectrogram, taken from the public inquiry file, to digitally recreate the last 30 seconds of cockpit audio before the plane crashed, including the pilot’s voices and background noises. A second recreated audio clip from an NTSB plane test was also released online.

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Citing privacy concerns, the agency issued a public statement explaining its decision to suspend access to investigative files, writing:

The NTSB is aware that advances in image recognition and computer methods have allowed individuals to reconstruct approximations of cockpit voice recorder audio 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.

The NTSB does not release cockpit audio recordings. Federal law prohibits such public disclosure due to the highly sensitive nature of verbal communications inside the cockpit. The NTSB takes these privacy restrictions seriously.