- NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Two preachers grounded a flight leaving Buffalo, New York, after they
frightened passengers by declaring the September 11, 2001, attacks were
a good reason to pray, officials said on Thursday.
-
- One preacher told fellow passengers as the Continental
Airlines plane taxied down the runway: "Your last breath on earth
is the first one in heaven as long as you are born again and have Jesus
in your heart," according to FBI spokesman Paul Moskal.
-
- Passengers on the Wednesday flight to Newark, New Jersey
told a flight attendant, who alerted the plane's captain, officials said.
The captain turned the plane around.
-
- "They were sincere in their beliefs and were not
malicious," Moskal said by telephone from Buffalo.
-
- "In the context of 9/11 it may not have been the
best way to promote their religion."
-
- The two Pentecostal ministers, Canadian nationals Yohan
Heenatigala and Komal Singh, were questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and later released and put on another flight, the spokesman said. They
were traveling to attend a convention in Baltimore, Maryland.
|
