She just wanted her "best flight now"

AP file
Victoria (left) and Joel Osteen and their family were asked to leave the flight after a disagreement.

Houston pastor Osteen, family kicked off flight

03:01 PM CST on Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Associated Press

HOUSTON - The pastor of the nation's largest church and his family were asked to leave a plane after his wife failed to comply with a flight attendant's instructions, the FBI said Tuesday.

Houston Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen, his wife Victoria Osteen, and their two children boarded a flight from Houston to Vail, Colo., Monday. The plane's door had been closed when Victoria Osteen and a flight attendant had a disagreement.

"She failed to comply with the flight attendant's instructions and they were asked to leave the flight," FBI spokeswoman Luz Garcia said.

The flight was delayed for more than an hour while the Osteens' luggage was retrieved, Garcia said. The Osteens took another flight to Colorado, where church spokesman Don Iloff said the family was skiing Tuesday.

The FBI, which has three agents at Bush Intercontinental Airport, was not called to the plane but reviewed a report from Continental Airlines after the incident, Garcia said. Garcia said the review revealed no illegal activity and no charges will be filed.

Iloff called the disagreement "minor" but would not say what specifically happened.

Continental spokeswoman Julie King would not discuss the disagreement but said in a statement that the situation was resolved.

Osteen took over his father's church in 1999 and has since increased its following to more than 30,000 worshippers weekly. The congregation meets in a renovated sports arena where the Houston Rockets once played.

Lakewood Church, which began in an abandoned feed store in 1959, spent more than 15 months and $75 million to turn the former arena into a church, complete with a bookstore, cafe, family life center and classrooms.

Osteen's sermons are also broadcast in cities throughout the country and his book "Your Best Life Now" has become a best-seller.