We brought down Challenger space shuttle in 1986, claims Turkish sect leader

ISTANBUL

The Challenger space shuttle, which exploded a few minutes after launching in 1986, was brought down by members of the Naqshbandi spiritual order in Turkey, one of the group’s leaders has claimed in a video that has gone viral on social media.

Ahmet Yasin Bursevi said the cause of the explosion of the space shuttle was the slackening of its cap screws by members of the Naqshbandi order.

“We were in the middle of the Hatme [a kind of dhikr ritual] when the challenger departed. There was no television in the room. Uncle Ahmet [one of the members of the group] started to speak loudly during the ritual, saying ‘why hasn’t it exploded yet?’ Uncle Mehmet Emin [another member] responded, saying ‘don’t worry. We have loosened its cap screws. It will go down soon.’ The shuttle went down at the same time. We learned it from the TV the next day,” Bursevi says in the video.

On Jan. 28, 1986, the NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L and the 10th flight of Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members.