The NTSB took its docket system offline after hobbyists used released data to synthesize seconds of cockpit chatter from the UPS flight 2976 crash. The November 4, 2025 accident in Louisville, Kentucky claimed three crew members and 12 ground victims when an engine ripped from the wing during takeoff. Reports included a spectrogram that, when fed to AI, produced an audio reconstruction.

Federal law bars the NTSB from releasing raw cockpit voice recordings, yet the agency posted a PDF of the spectrogram alongside a transcript and video of the engine failure. Investigators noted that modern image‑recognition tools can reverse‑engineer such graphics. One X user claimed OpenAI’s Codex reconstructed the 30‑second segment in roughly ten minutes, demonstrating how AI lowers the barrier to recreating sensitive audio.

Facing the unintended leak, the board announced a temporary shutdown of its docket system to assess the scope of the problem and consider new safeguards. Critics argue that publishing spectrograms invites privacy breaches and could complicate future investigations. Until the NTSB revises its data‑release policy, researchers and the public will likely lose a valuable source of detailed crash information.