Replay Video
UP NEXT
1
Cancel
Louisville church group stuck in Israel over coronavirus
WHAS-TV Louisville
See more videos
What to watch next
UP NEXT
UP NEXT

After coronavirus concerns stopped a Louisville church group from returning home from Israel, United Airlines has provided free travel directly back to Louisville.

Loading...

Load Error

Members of the Evangel World Prayer Center travel with Pastor Dr. Bob Rodgers to Israel every year, but they did not know if they would make it home when planned due to the virus. 

"A lot of these people, it's been something their whole life they've wanted to come to Israel," Rodgers said. 

By phone Wednesday afternoon, Rodgers said the group was set to fly from Tel Aviv to Rome Wednesday morning. Due to the virus, though, flights are blocked into Italy. 

"No flights from Italy to Israel. No flights from Israel to Rome," Rodgers said.

Rodgers said another part of their tour group was able to re-route with Delta Airlines to make it back to the U.S. but United would not help.

"United says you have to get here if you want us to honor your ticket," he said. "And it's disappointing because American Airlines are helping some of their people, and so is Delta, but not United and we paid for the ticket."

Rodgers said United Airlines refused to help re-route the flights for the group. Instead, he said the airline originally said they would need to buy new tickets to fly from Israel to another country and then from there to Rome or the U.S. 

New tickets out of Israel, Rodgers said, could cost up to $1,700. With the global spread of the virus, they also worried they could get quarantined.

"Most of the folks that go on this tour are taking vacation time from work in order to go. Some of them I know, one couple in particular, has school age children," Kevin McKnight, the associate pastor of Evangel World Prayer Center, said. 

WHAS11 did contact United Airlines for comment after McKnight reached out, and United said it would need more information. McKnight said United told the group stuck in Tel Aviv it would provide free passage overnight, though they are not sure exactly what time they would return.

"I think if they stay past Friday it wont be good. Right now the morale is good but I just have to get them home," Rodgers said. "You can't leave people stranded across these countries. They need to get home, especially when there's sickness breaking out."

RELATED: House passes bipartisan $8.3B bill to fight coronavirus, Senate to vote this week

RELATED: Kentucky, Indiana now have test kits for coronavirus

RELATED: This interactive map shows all reported coronavirus cases in the world

►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.  

Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.  

Read More
Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article.
Feedback

Found the story interesting?

Like us on Facebook to see similar stories


Send MSN Feedback

We appreciate your input!

Please give an overall site rating: