The NTSB suspended public access to its investigation database on May 21 after internet users re-created cockpit audio from a UPS cargo plane crash using AI tools and spectrogram analysis. UPS flight 2976, an MD-11F that crashed in Louisville, Kentucky on November 4, 2025, killed three pilots and 12 people on the ground. The agency's docket system went "temporarily unavailable" as it reviewed how the re-creations were possible.

During a May 19-20 investigative hearing, the NTSB released a spectrogram showing the last 30 seconds of cockpit audio. Internet users applied the Griffin-Lim algorithm and OpenAI's Codex model to reconstruct pilot voices, with one person claiming just 10 minutes of work produced rough audio. The re-creations spread on X and Reddit before the NTSB pulled its entire docket offline.

A 1990 federal law bars the NTSB from releasing cockpit voice recordings to protect pilots' privacy. Ben Berman, a former NTSB investigator, says the law reassures pilots their recordings won't be exposed publicly or repurposed. Once audio reaches the internet, containing it becomes nearly impossible.