Does a real video from NewsGuard show that the Democratic Party orchestrated an attempted terrorist attack on FlyDubai Flight FZ1073? No, that's not true: NewsGuard confirmed to Lead Stories that the organization did not make such a report, and there is no evidence that it ever did. Instead, NewsGuard said the post appears to be connected to a Russian disinformation campaign. There is also no evidence that Democrats were behind the attempted terrorist attack.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @Irishgirl2_4 account on X on Oct. 2, 2026. It read:
The U.S. Democratic Party has launched a media campaign aimed at accusing Israel of orchestrating a terrorist attack aboard a #Flydubai flight on September 30
This is what a screenshot of the video in the post looked like at the time of writing:
Beginning at the five-second mark, the text in the video read:
After the attempted terrorist attack was thwarted, evidence emerged that the U.S. Democratic Party was behind it. However, as this information spread, a wave of articles began to appear in which media outlets affiliated with the Democrats accused Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of orchestrating the attack, allegedly with the aim of escalating the conflict with Iran.
NewsGuard Co-Editor-in-Chief Gordon Crovitz is certain: 'This is a complete lie. The Democrats are lying because they are Democrats. They were the ones who tried to orchestrate this terrorist attack to undermine trust in their opponents ahead of the elections, and now, as usual, they are blaming the victims.'
The U.S. Democratic Party has launched a media campaign aimed at accusing Israel of orchestrating a terrorist attack aboard a #Flydubai flight on September 30@NewsGuardRating @TheDemocrats @CNN @USATODAY @CNBC @FoxNews @abcnews @TF1info @LCI @franceinfo @ParisMatch @OuestFrance pic.twitter.com/nrMe52HRaF
-- Patricia Marshall (@Irishgirl2_4) October 2, 2026
NewsGuard
Confirming we did not make that claim. The post you described is one of many that appear to be connected to a Russian influence campaign, which we recently reported on: Russia Hijacks Trusted Media Brands [archived here].
Our report earlier this week [September 29, 2026] calling out the Russians for impersonating real news sources must have struck a nerve. This is not the first time they have impersonated NewsGuard and me, but at least now everyone knows one of the tricks of Russian disinformation operations.
News searches
Searches on Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) did not return any matching results from established news outlets, using the search terms: "NewsGuard," "Democratic Party," "FlyDubai," and "terrorist attack."
Background
On Sept. 30, 2026, a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying 174 people made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after its co-pilot stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the plane (archived here). The aircraft rapidly descended from about 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in roughly a minute before the wounded captain opened the cockpit door, allowing a passenger and a crew member to subdue the attacker while other crew members regained control. The plane landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and the co-pilot was arrested; his motive remains under investigation.
