Friday briefing: How we covered the flydubai incident as it unfolded

Good morning. Shocking news of a cockpit stabbing. Graphic footage of bloodied crew members. Mid-air testimony from terrified passengers.

This was the tenor of the heart-in-mouth reporting as the horrifying events unfolded onboard flight FZ ۱۰۷۳ to Tel Aviv: the early morning budget flight that plummeted ۱۷,۰۰۰ft in under two minutes before the courageous intervention of passengers and crew averted an apparent hijacking, potentially saving the lives of not just the ۱۷۰+ passengers and crew on board, but many more.

This morning, speculation and conflicting reports are continuing to emerge about this dramatic incident in the sky above the most geopolitically sensitive region in the world.

So how does the Guardian report a swiftly developing story engulfed in misinformation, as accurately and responsibility as possible? I spoke to the reporters, bloggers and editors involved to find out. But first, this morning’s headlines.

Five big stories

1. UK politics | Ministers are working up sweeping plans for welfare changes including scrapping a key disability benefit for under-۲۵s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work.

2. Northern Ireland | Talks aimed at resolving the Drumcree parade dispute have broken up without agreement, with Northern Ireland secretary Chris Bryant describing the situation as being between a “rock and a hard place”.

3. US news | Tennessee’s governor has suspended all executions in the state and ordered an independent inquiry after a botched attempt to put a condemned inmate to death on Wednesday night.

4. AI | When prompted, AI chat bots will edit images to remove the hijabs from Muslim women, a violation of one of the world’s most common and visible expressions of faith.

5. Europe news | A fast-growing protest by high-school students over long hours, teacher shortages and decaying facilities has escalated into “urban violence”, the French government has warned.

In depth: ‘It was very, very tricky to untangle what was happening’

International leaders have rushed to praise Smit Machchhar, the captain of flight FZ ۱۰۷۳. Bleeding heavily from multiple stab wounds, he somehow managed to release his cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to gain entry and overpower his co-pilot turned assailant, an Omani national, who had attacked Machchhar in an apparent attempt to crash the plane. Other crew members were able to stabilise the flight and, just before ۱۱am local time on Wednesday, the Boeing ۷۳۷ Max made a safe emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. All ۱۷۴ passengers on board escaped serious injury.

Yesterday, as internationally coordinated investigations continued, the attacker’s motives remained unknown. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News it was “too early to say” if there was any Iranian involvement, while claiming the co-pilot had previously undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was suicidal. Other senior Israeli figures have been more vehement, with ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, describing the incident as a “terror attack”. Two Israeli security sources later told Reuters that they had not yet found Iranian involvement.

Saudi investigators detained the co-pilot upon landing and are cooperating with the United Arab Emirates, the US, Oman and Israel to determine his reasons and potential affiliations. William Christou, a Beirut-based reporter with the Guardian, tells me: “They’re examining whether it’s a terror attack, whether it had any previous planning or prior direction, and if it could be a lone wolf attacker, who was perhaps motivated by anti-Israel hate, but wasn’t necessarily linked to any larger organisation or state.”

‘The story changed moment to moment’

William began drafting his initial report as soon as he woke up to news alerts about a potential hijacking. The Israeli government originally minimised the incident, describing it as a fight between pilots, while another early report suggested the plane had to land because of a fight between Ukrainian and Russian co-pilots.

“I was sifting through so much misinformation,” he says. “The story changed very quickly, and moment to moment.”

Back in the UK, Oliver Holmes was looking at flight trackers. Now based at Guardian HQ, Oliver has reported extensively across the Middle East. What I didn’t know until we spoke is that he once trained as a pilot, which has left him with an enduring interest in aerospace and aviation.

Flight tracking websites have transformed how we report in-air incidents, he tells me. “Before any government has made an announcement, these platforms can tell you something seriously wrong has happened.”

Flight tracking website Flightradar۲۴ recorded the aircraft rapidly descending from its cruising altitude of about ۳۴,۰۰۰ft to ۱۷,۰۰۰ft in less than two minutes, just as it reached to the Saudi-Jordanian border. Oliver suggests that investigators will look at whether this sudden and ferocious plunge was why the plane eventually landed with part of its tail missing.

Oliver sent what he could interpret from the tracking data to his international desk editors, who asked him to work on a tick-tock piece – not, for once, a reference to social media, but an old-school print term for an article that sets out the hour-by-hour narrative of an unfolding news story.

“It was very, very tricky to untangle what was happening,” says Oliver. Eventually there came a flood of footage purporting to show images from inside the plane – but was it real? Each clip that the Guardian incorporated into our reporting had to be verified, particularly given the potential for AI-generated fakes. (The Guardian’s head of photography Fiona Shields is fascinating here on how we assess AI images.)

‘Netanyahu was trying to present himself as Mr. Security’

But this wasn’t just an aviation disaster. “It was taking place in this hugely sensitive geopolitical situation,” says Oliver. “The plane landed in Saudi Arabia which does not officially have diplomatic relations with Israel.”

The budget airline itself, flydubai, had by now suspended all its flights to and from Israel, but warned against “premature speculation” while multiple governments, and Israeli officials in particular, were doing just that.

This incident has occurred at a moment of extreme instability across the region, with the strait of Hormuz still closed as a result of the US-Israel assault on Iran and the resurgence of conflict in Yemen. It is also weeks ahead of knife-edge Israeli elections, with polls showing Netanyahu’s current coalition unlikely to meet the threshold needed to form a government but no clear path to power for his rivals.

Just days ago, Netanyahu warned Israel faced an unspecified attack risk during the election period – an assertion greeted with cynicism by political opponents. The Israeli military subsequently confirmed they had no specific intelligence of an anticipated attack. “Most people interpreted that as Netanyahu trying to stir up his base by presenting himself as Mr. Security,” says William.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu’s supporters consider him vindicated. On Thursday, William tells me, the Israeli foreign ministry started briefing diplomats that the flydubai incident was an attempt to drive a further wedge between the UAE and Israel, a relationship already strained after leaks suggesting Netanyahu was personally alerted to the ۷ October attacks by the UAE president a week before it took place, something the president has denounced as “an absolute lie”.

‘These stories can be incredibly powerful’

It’s a challenging time to report a story like this, says Taz Ali, who led our live blog which covered the incident unfolding in real-time on Wednesday. “Readers are making connections with what’s happening in the Middle East in general, and you’re trying to answer their questions, first with very scant detail and later with a deluge of information, much of which is proved to be inaccurate.”

Taz, who has a decade of experience in reporting on global events, knows the human drama of a potential hijacking immediately grabs reader’s attention. “Often those stories can be incredibly powerful, involve emergency landings, and sometimes they end in great tragedies”. And with the recent ۲۵th anniversary of ۹/۱۱, the incident had an even deeper resonance. “Especially with the anniversary happening so recently, those memories would have been so raw in people’s minds when they came to this story.”

What else we’ve been enjoying

• A new Taschen book of images from the National Geographic’s archives charts a century of dramatic change. And this fantastic gallery shows a tantalising selection, from the burlesque clubs of Baltimore to a blimp crossing New York Harbour. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team

• I loved our piece on when book clubs get dramatic, featuring werewolf smut, bad book choices, and infuriation when people don’t actually read the book. Poppy

• Elle Hunt’s piece about the evolution and cultural significance of human hair tackles many questions I never knew I needed answering. Case in point: what on earth is the purpose of pubic hair? Lucinda

• Guardian contributor Katherine Rowland went to Chicago for the United Astrology Conference and tells a captivating story about the battle over who gets to interpret the stars and how they should do it. Poppy

• Philip Oltermann’s interview with German artist and writer Philipp Ruch is a fascinating read. Ruch argues that “most of the theories we have to explain the rise of the Nazis don’t make sense – the data tells a far darker story”, one that could help us understand the rise of right-wing extremists today. Lucinda

Sport

Football | Wales ended their long wait for a Nations League win by beating Norway ۲-۱ in Cardiff, while Portugal maintained their perfect start with a ۴-۲ victory over Denmark in Copenhagen.

Football | The United States is poised to host the first Women’s Club World Cup in January ۲۰۲۸, becoming the latest in a series of major Fifa tournaments staged in North America.

Football | Andy Burnham’s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime minister.

Something for the weekend

Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now

TV
Blue Lights (BBC One) | ★★★★☆
This Northern Ireland-set police drama has always been modern but never explicitly topical. Until now. Race riots, organised crime and institutional politics bring it bang up to date. Read Jack Seale’s full review.

Music
Meshell Ndegeocello: Synonym | ★★★★☆
In the jazz-soul singer’s ‘expression of queer liberation’, stars from Chaka Khan to Bill Callahan to Cynthia Erivo duet on equally varied songs from Cher to the Human League and beyond. Read Alexis Petridis’s full review.

Film
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie (in cinemas now) | ★★★★☆
Alex Gibney’s documentary follows the celebrated author’s life up to and after the attack, but what shines through is Rushdie’s remarkable courage. Read Peter Bradshaw’s full review.

Art
Renoir and Love (National Gallery, London, from tomorrow) | ★★★★★
Grab your straw boater – and revel in the Impressionist’s light-as-souffle masterpieces that celebrate life’s pleasures, from picnics to dances to frolics in the bushes. Read Jonathan Jones’s full review.

The front pages

The Guardian splashes with “Welfare changes may axe disability benefit for young”. The Times leads with “Emergency diesel talks after Trump ultimatum” and the Telegraph says “Trump tells Europe to release diesel”. The Mail runs with “Labour frees first of ۱۰ tidal waves of convicts”, while The i Paper has “Burnham leaving the door open to snap general election in ۲۰۲۷”. The Sun, on Andy Burnham’s Manchester City comments, says “Own goal”. The Financial Times goes with “Global bond sell-off leaves US trapped in vicious loop”, and the Mirror leads on an interview with a survivor of the Manchester synagogue attack, saying “He stabbed me ۳ times but I had to stop him”.

The Latest

US woman on death row survives two lethal injections in Tennessee

A woman convicted of murdering a schoolmate ۳۰ years ago has been taken to hospital after surviving two rounds of lethal injections in Tennessee. Christa Pike would have been the first woman to be executed in the state in ۲۰۰ years. Pike, ۵۰, has spent three decades on death row after she was convicted of the murder of ۱۹-year-old Colleen Slemmer in ۱۹۹۵. A last-minute appeal to stop the lethal injection was overturned by the supreme court, but the state governor, Bill Lee, has suspended executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year. Lucy Hough speaks to the attorney and anti-capital punishment campaigner Clive Stafford Smith.

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

Eleven-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan has become the youngest ever ‘woman grandmaster’ at the Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan – while playing on a car booster seat so she could reach the board.

Sivanandan, who lives in Harrow, was taught to play by her father when she was five. Within a year, she was beating him and by eight she had beaten the former British champion Peter Lee. If she reaches a rating of ۲,۵۰۰ in the next ۱۱ months, she will become the world’s youngest ever outright grandmaster.

She fits her chess career around school, but takes everything in her stride. “Now that I’m in secondary school there might be more homework,” she says, “but I should be able to manage”. Her ultimate ambition, she says, is simply to be the best chess player in the world.

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Bored at work?

And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.