Media outlets face backlash over early framing of Flydubai hijacking attempt

Apparent attempt to hijack flight to Tel Aviv and crash the plane was described as a “brawl” or “altercation” by some media outlets, drawing sharp criticism online.

By World Israel News Staff

Several major international news organizations are facing criticism over their initial coverage of the attack aboard a flydubai flight bound for Israel, after early headlines describing a “fight,” “brawl” or “altercation” between pilots were overtaken by accounts of a stabbing, a dramatic plunge and an apparent effort to bring down the aircraft.

The controversy erupted as a far more alarming picture of Wednesday’s incident aboard Flight FZ1073 emerged over the course of several hours.

The Boeing 737 was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 people aboard when the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the Indian captain inside the cockpit. The aircraft then plunged thousands of feet and transmitted emergency signals, including a code indicating unlawful interference, before passengers and other crew members intervened.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said the co-pilot “apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board.”

But some of the earliest international reports were far more restrained.

The BBC initially ran the headline “Israel-bound flight diverted after fight between pilots” and described what had occurred as a “physical altercation between the pilots.”

The New York Times similarly reported in an early breaking-news post that the aircraft had been diverted “after an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot,” while later referring to a “confrontation between the pilot and co-pilot.”

The Guardian‘s early live coverage called the incident an “apparent brawl” between the pilots, language that remained visible in portions of its coverage even after more serious allegations began emerging.

Those descriptions prompted a wave of criticism online as videos, passenger accounts and official statements revealed the severity of the episode.

Critics argued that words such as “fight” and “altercation” suggested a mutual dispute rather than an incident in which one pilot allegedly attacked the other with a weapon and interfered with the controls of an aircraft carrying mostly Israeli passengers.

The New York Times directly defended its reporting after being challenged online.

“Unlike activists and partisans, we don’t publish speculation or unverified information,” the newspaper said, arguing that its coverage was being updated as facts could be independently confirmed.

That defense highlighted a complication in assessing the earliest reports: information coming from officials during the first hours of the incident was itself incomplete and at times contradictory.

Initial Israeli information indicated that the emergency did not constitute a hijacking, while early reports described some form of dispute between the pilots. Flydubai itself later said only that an “altercation occurred in the flight deck” and cautioned that the motive remained unknown.

“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation,” the airline said.

It urged people to “refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.”

By later in the day, however, the known sequence of events had become considerably clearer.

Netanyahu said the co-pilot stabbed the captain as the aircraft approached Israel and then apparently attempted to crash the plane.

“This morning, there was a serious security incident on a flight from Dubai to Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Almost all the passengers on the flight were Israelis.”

According to the prime minister, an Israeli passenger and a crew member managed to enter the cockpit and overpower the attacker as he attempted to interfere with the aircraft’s systems.

Another flight crew traveling aboard the aircraft then entered the cockpit and stabilized the plane.

Flight data independently showed an extraordinarily rapid descent. The aircraft lost nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds at one stage of the emergency.

Passenger accounts described people being thrown around the cabin as the plane plunged.

One passenger recounted his daughters screaming, “We don’t want to die.”

The wounded captain, Smit Machchhar, managed to open the cockpit despite suffering serious injuries, allowing others to intervene. Several passengers helped restrain the alleged attacker while off-duty pilots took control of the aircraft.

The flight eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where the suspect was detained.

Israeli officials subsequently began treating the episode as a possible terrorist attack, although investigators have not yet established the co-pilot’s motive or announced evidence that he was acting on behalf of a terrorist organization.

The evolving facts led several news organizations to substantially update their coverage.

The Guardian‘s later headline stated that the pilot had been arrested after stabbing another pilot and apparently trying to crash the Israel-bound aircraft.

The BBC also moved to reports centered on passenger accounts of the stabbing and intervention aboard the flight.

The controversy was not limited to wording.

During one BBC broadcast, a presenter mistakenly referred to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport as “Ben Gvir Airport,” apparently confusing the airport named for Israel’s first prime minister with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The presenter said the aircraft “should have landed at Ben Gvir Airport” before describing its diversion to Saudi Arabia.

Another extraordinary error occurred on Fox News, which briefly aired footage from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks while reporting on the unfolding flydubai incident.

The footage showed the site of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Fox News apologized shortly afterward.

“We apologize for any confusion,” host Brian Kilmeade said, explaining that unrelated footage had been shown while the network was still trying to determine what had happened aboard the flydubai flight.