NTSB restricts site after users reconstruct Louisville UPS crash audio

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, on Thursday restricted access to its online search docket system after the board said users reconstructed cockpit audio of a deadly plane crash using data from the system. The November 2025 crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, Ky., killed 15 people, including the plane’s three crew members and 12 on the ground. The plane went down just after takeoff after its left engine and pylon broke off, NTSB preliminary findings indicated.

The NTSB said people used image recognition and computer software to approximate the cockpit voice recorder audio from sound spectrum images that it released as part of its investigation into the crash. Federal law bans the release of such audio recordings. The NTSB said it took those restrictions seriously and was examining the scope of the issue.

The NTSB hoped to restore access to the docket system soon, it said. Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy also said she was urging online platforms such as Reddit and X to remove users’ posts of the reconstructed audio.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the preliminary NTSB findings on the crash.