Enraged by their older sister’s plan to skip out on an arranged marriage, two Queens brothers phoned in a terrorist threat to Long Island’s MacArthur Airport last month, officials said yesterday.
Suffolk County police busted financial analyst Amandeep Singh, 24, and Long Island College Hospital medical student Gurpreet Singh, 26, Thursday.
They are charged with falsely reporting a terrorist threat to plant a bomb on an outbound Delta jet.
Their parents, fuming over their 30-year-old daughter’s relationship with a gas-station owner, had set up a marriage with a doctor back in India. So, in a desperate bid to elope with the man she loved, the daughter – not identified by police – bought plane tickets to Arkansas.
But the brothers learned of her plan and called the airport Jan. 17. They said they’d heard of a plot to bomb a plane there the next day – the day the couple was to fly out.
Suffolk County cops, the FBI and Transportation Security Administration officials beefed up security but smelled a rat – or two. No flights were disrupted, and the public was never notified.
But when the brothers told their sister what they had done, she canceled her reservations – and since the one-way tickets had been bought mere hours before the scheduled departure, investigators zeroed in on the couple and eventually on the bride-to-be’s family.
The brothers, U.S. residents for over 15 years, could face up to a year in prison – more if the feds file additional charges.
Reached at home last night in Briarwood, Amandeep Singh insisted, “It’s all a misunderstanding,” then slammed the door.
“If not properly investigated, a bogus threat like this can bring economies and entire infrastructures to a halt,” said Suffolk County Inspector James Burke. “It’s a very serious threat.”
Burke added that neither Amandeep nor Gurpreet are on any official watch list that might connect them to terrorist activities.
Officials verified that his sister recently got married – to the man of her choice.