Mark Bingham

Mark Bingham
Mark Bingham
Born Mark Kendall Bingham
May 22, 1970 (1970-05-22)
Phoenix, Arizona
Died September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 31)
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Cause of death Plane crash
Nationality American
Citizenship American
Home town Los Gatos, California
Height 6 ft 4 in
Weight 225 pounds (102 kg)

Mark Kendall Bingham (May 22, 1970 – September 11, 2001) was an American public relations executive who founded his own company, the Bingham Group. During the September 11 attacks in 2001 he was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93. Bingham died when the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to foil the hijacking.

Contents

Education

Bingham attended Los Gatos High School. He was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he was president of his fraternity, Chi Psi. In college, he played for the UC Berkeley rugby union team and helped them win a string of national championships.

Rugby and business career

A large athlete at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and 225 pounds (102 kg), Bingham also played for the rugby union team San Francisco Fog RFC.[1] In 2001 most of the Fog were novices to the game, but Bingham showed up anyway. He coached, cajoled, and crashed through their practices, and played No. 8 in their first two friendly matches. He also played in their first tournament (where he dislocated his shoulder early on). He taught his teammates his favorite rugby songs.[2]

In May 2001, as a member of the Fog, he took part in the Washington D.C. Renegades Invitational Tournament. Although very few in number, most of the rugby teams extant at that time took part in the tournament. It was after the tournament that Gotham's Scott Glaessgen, who had been inspired by the tournament and who had been friends with Bingham since 1998, contacted him about forming a rugby team in New York City.

Bingham had recently opened a satellite office of his successful public relations firm in New York City and was spending more time on the East Coast.[3] Bingham was excited about the possibility and over the summer the two men started planning the formation of a team, Gotham Knights.[4]

On September 11, 2001, he boarded United Airlines Flight 93 at the last minute, on his way to San Francisco to be an usher in his fraternity brother Joseph Salama's wedding.

Death

Mark Bingham may have been one of the passengers who attempted to storm the cockpit of the hijacked airliner United Airlines Flight 93 to try to prevent al-Qaeda terrorists from using the plane as a part of the September 11 attacks. The target of the Flight 93 hijackers was reported to have been either the White House or U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C. Bingham made a brief airphone call to his mother, Alice Hoagland, shortly before the plane went down. Hoagland, a former flight attendant with United Airlines, later left a voicemail message on his cell phone, instructing her son to attempt to reclaim the aircraft[citation needed] after it became apparent that Flight 93 was to be used in a fourth suicide attack.

Bingham was survived by his boyfriend of six years, Paul Holm, who said that Bingham had risked his life to protect the lives of others.[5][6] He had twice successfully protected Holm from attempted muggings, one at gunpoint.[6] Holm described Bingham as a brave, competitive man, saying, "He hated to lose — at anything."[6] He was even known to proudly display a scar he received after being gored at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.[6]

At the National 9/11 Memorial, Bingham is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-67.[7]

Memorials

In the media

Notes

  1. ^ "Person of the year: This Is Mark Bingham"; Jon Barrett The Advocate, January 22, 2002, Nos. 854-855, ISSN 0001-8996, page 41,42.
  2. ^ http://www.binghamcup.com/about/
  3. ^ "Person of the year: This Is Mark Bingham"; Jon Barrett The Advocate, January 22, 2002, Nos. 854-855, ISSN 0001-8996, page 45.
  4. ^ http://gothamrfc.org/drupal/?q=node/5
  5. ^ "Person of the year: This Is Mark Bingham", Jon Barrett The Advocate, January 22, 2002, Nos. 854-855, ISSN 0001-8996, page 43-47.
  6. ^ a b c d "Our Heroes: Whether It Was By Saving Lives or Simply Living Life to Its Fullest, Gay Men and Lesbians Were Among the Thousands of Americans who, on September 11, Showed Humanity's True Spirit", Mubarak Dahir The Advocate, October 23, 2001, ISSN 0001-8996, page 42-45.
  7. ^ Mark Bingham. Memorial Guide: National 9/11 Memorial. Retrieved October 28, 2011.

References

  • Jon Barrett. Hero of Flight 93: Mark Bingham, Advocate Books, 2002. Biography. ISBN 1-55583-780-8.
  • UNITED FLIGHT 93: On Doomed Flight, Passengers Vowed to Perish Fighting, New York Times, 13 September 2001.

External links

and individually at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site
and the combined memorial at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

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