This was the tenor of the heart-in-mouth reporting as the horrifying events unfolded onboard flight FZ 1073 to Tel Aviv: the early morning budget flight that plummeted 17,000ft in under two minutes before the courageous intervention of passengers and crew averted an apparent hijacking, potentially saving the lives of not just the 170+ passengers and crew on board, but many more.
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intervention → unfold → board
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.
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speculation → conflict → world
So how does the Guardian report a swiftly developing story engulfed in misinformation, as accurately and responsibility as possible?
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Guardian → report → misinformation
I spoke to the reporters, bloggers and editors involved to find out.
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I → speak → reporters
Ministers are working up sweeping plans for welfare changes including scrapping a key disability benefit for under-25s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work.
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Ministers → work → work
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”.
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Bryant → aim → rock
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.
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governor → suspend → night
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.
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bots → prompt → faith
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.
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government → grow → violence
In depth: ‘It was very, very tricky to untangle what was happening’
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what → untangle → depth
International leaders have rushed to praise Smit Machchhar, the captain of flight FZ 1073.
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leaders → rush → FZ
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.
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who → bleed → plane
Other crew members were able to stabilise the flight and, just before 11am local time on Wednesday, the Boeing 737 Max made a safe emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
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Max → stabilise → Arabia
All 174 passengers on board escaped serious injury.
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passengers → escape → injury
Yesterday, as internationally coordinated investigations continued, the attacker’s motives remained unknown.
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motives → coordinate → ?
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.
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pilot → tell → indoctrination
Other senior Israeli figures have been more vehement, with ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, describing the incident as a “terror attack”.
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Danon → describe → attack
Two Israeli security sources later told Reuters that they had not yet found Iranian involvement.
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they → tell → 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.
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investigators → detain → reasons
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.”
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who → base → organisation
‘The story changed moment to moment’
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story → change → moment
William began drafting his initial report as soon as he woke up to news alerts about a potential hijacking.
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he → begin → 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.
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plane → minimise → pilots
“I was sifting through so much misinformation,” he says.
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he → sift → misinformation
“The story changed very quickly, and moment to moment.
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story → change → moment
Back in the UK, Oliver Holmes was looking at flight trackers.
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Holmes → look → trackers
Now based at Guardian HQ, Oliver has reported extensively across the Middle East.
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Oliver → base → 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.
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which → know → aerospace
Flight tracking websites have transformed how we report in-air incidents, he tells me.
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he → transform → me
“Before any government has made an announcement, these platforms can tell you something seriously wrong has happened.
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something → make → you
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 recorded the aircraft rapidly descending from its cruising altitude of about 34,000ft to 17,000ft in less than two minutes, just as it reached to the Saudi-Jordanian border.
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it → record → 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.
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part → suggest → tail
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.
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that → send → story
“It was very, very tricky to untangle what was happening,” says Oliver.
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Oliver → untangle → ?
Eventually there came a flood of footage purporting to show images from inside the plane – but was it real?
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it → come → plane
Each clip that the Guardian incorporated into our reporting had to be verified, particularly given the potential for AI-generated fakes.
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Guardian → incorporate → fakes
(The Guardian’s head of photography Fiona Shields is fascinating here on how we assess AI images.)
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we → assess → images
‘Netanyahu was trying to present himself as Mr. Security’
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Netanyahu → try → Security
“It was taking place in this hugely sensitive geopolitical situation,” says Oliver.
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Oliver → take → situation
“The plane landed in Saudi Arabia which does not officially have diplomatic relations with Israel.”
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which → land → Israel
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia
