Support for Schuller Reaffirmed

NEW YORK — A honeymooning couple on the same flight as the Rev. Robert H. Schuller reaffirmed their support of the minister on Friday, claiming he couldn’t have hurt the flight attendant who is suing the preacher for $5 million.

Dual Macintyre and Kara Naughton Macintyre said they were in the first-class section with Schuller on the June 28 United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York. They insisted there was “no way” Schuller had hurt flight attendant Khaled Elabiad, who claims he was shaken so badly by Schuller that he has been unable to work since.

“We’ve been outraged that they’re making a big deal about the incident. Nothing really happened,” said Dual Macintyre, 31.

His wife said that from her first-row seat, she saw the minister approach Elabiad in a galley.

“They were speaking quietly, but the conversation didn’t appear to be going well, as the flight attendant’s voice was rising. At this, Rev. Schuller reached out and put his hand on the flight attendant’s upper arm to calm him,” said Kara McIntyre, 26, patting her husband’s left arm.

“Rev. Schuller did not hit or strike the flight attendant in any fashion,” she continued. The couple, who live in Larchmont, N.Y., are salespeople for AT&T.;

“He definitely was not shaking around [Elabiad]. There was no way he could have been hurt from that touch, no way,” Kara McIntyre said.

Schuller was flying to New York to attend a memorial service for Betty Shabazz; the Macintyres were returning from their honeymoon.

Schuller first confronted Elabiad when the flight attendant would not hang up Schuller’s preacher’s robe before takeoff.

Terry Giles, Schuller’s lawyer, said Elabiad told Schuller that hanging up the garment violated airline rules. Giles said Schuller’s compromise--to remove the robe from the bag and hang it like a coat--was acceptable to a supervisor but seemed to rankle the attendant.

Later, the two tangled when the attendant refused Schuller’s request for grapes without cheese, and the preacher went to the galley.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

“This event was the most traumatic experience of my life,” Elabiad said outside his attorney’s office Wednesday.

Giles said Friday that Elabiad was making an “extortion attempt” on his client.

Elabiad’s lawyer, Jack Grossman, challenged Giles and said there are other passengers who will speak on Elabiad’s behalf.

The “Hour of Power” televangelist has said he “aggressively” grabbed Elabiad but did not shake him as the flight attendant alleged. Schuller has said he sought to make peace after the disagreement over whether he could hang his robe.

“I am a hands-on person,” Schuller told churchgoers at his Crystal Cathedral in July. “I bless. I hold. I hug. I’m a hands-on person, I learned that from Jesus Christ. I failed because one of my weapons, the hands-on approach, didn’t work.”