9-11: Remembering The Heroism Of Mark Bingham

Fifteen years ago, Alice Hoagland received a call from her son, Mark Bingham. “This is Mark Bingham, I love you,” and he hung up.

He ended the call quickly so this 30 year-old gay rugby player could join fellow passengers, Louis Nacke, a weightlifter and William Cashman, a former paratrooper, and Jeremy Glick, a 6’1″ judo champion, as they plotted to retake control of Flight 93.

From 9.57, the cockpit recorder picks up the sounds of fighting in an aircraft losing control at 30,000 feet – the crash of trolleys, dishes being hurled and smashed. The terrorists scream at each other to hold the door against what is obviously a siege from the cabin. A passenger cries: ‘Let’s get them!’ and there is more screaming, then an apparent breach. ‘Give it to me!’ shouts a passenger, apparently about to seize the controls. ~The Guardian

The plane was twenty minutes of flying time away from its suspected target, the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building. Mark Bingham and the other heroes of Flight 93 seized the control wheel and turned hard to the right. This caused it to roll on its back and plow into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 580 miles an hour, killing everyone on board but potentially saving an untold number of lives in the Washington D.C.

What Mark Bingham did made him a hero.

Who he loved made him one of us.

Rest in Peace, brave man.

#September11 #NeverForget

 
Never Forget
[9/11 Memorial Dedication Features Gay Hero Mark Bingham]
[Exclusive Video Reveals Gay 9/11 Hero Mark Bingham on Rugby Pitch, Behind the Camera]
[Let’s Roll: The Story of Flight 93]

Tags: 9-11, gay heroes, Mark Bingham, September 11