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) Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania
Cause of death	Plane crash
Nationality	American
Citizenship	American
Home town	Los Gatos, California
Height	6 ft 4 in (190 cm)
Weight	225 lb (102 kg)

Mark Bingham's mother (Alice Hoagland) and his friend Jason Reimuller (R) at training for Bingham Cup 2014 in Sydney.

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 is believed to have been one of the passengers who, along with Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick, formed the plan to overtake the plane from the hijackers, and led the effort that resulted in the crash of the plane into a field near Shanksville, and all of the passengers' deaths.^[1]

Both for his heroic actions on United 93, as well as his athletic physique and masculine lifestyle, Bingham has been widely honored posthumously for having "smashed the gay stereotype mold and really opened the door to many others that came after him."^[2]

Early life

Mark Bingham was born in 1970, the only child of single mother Alice Hoagland. He grew up in Miami, Florida and Southern California before moving to the San Jose area in 1983. Bingham was an aspiring filmmaker growing up, and began using a video camera as a teenager as a personal diary through which he expressed himself and documented his life and the lives of those of his family and friends. He accumulated hundreds of hours of video documenting the final decade and a half of his life. He graduated from Los Gatos High School as a two-year captain of his rugby team in 1988. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, Bingham played on two of Coach Jack Clark's national-championship-winning rugby teams in the early 1990s. He also joined the Chi Psi fraternity, eventually becoming its president. Upon graduation at the age of twenty-one, Bingham came out as gay to his family and friends.^[3][4]

Rugby and business career

A large athlete at 6 ft 4 in (190 cm) and 225 pounds (102 kg), Bingham also played for the gay-inclusive rugby union team San Francisco Fog RFC.^[5] Bingham played No. 8 in their first two friendly matches. He played in their first tournament, and taught his teammates his favorite rugby songs.^[6]

Bingham had recently opened a satellite office of his public relations firm in New York City, and was spending more time on the East Coast, and discussed plans with his friend Scott Glaessgen about forming a New York City rugby team, Gotham Knights.^[7][8]

On September 11, 2001

On the morning of September 11, Bingham overslept and nearly missed the flight, on his way to San Francisco to be an usher in his fraternity brother Joseph Salama's wedding.^[9] He arrived at the Terminal A at 7:40am, ran to Gate 17, and was the last passenger to board, taking seat 4D, next to passenger Tom Burnett.^[10][11]

United Flight 93 was scheduled to depart at 8:00am, but the Boeing 757 did not depart until 42 minutes later due to runway traffic delays. Six minutes later, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower. 15 minutes later, at 9:03 am, as United Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower, United 93 was climbing to cruising altitude, heading west over New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. At 9:25 am, Flight 93 was above eastern Ohio, and its pilot radioed Cleveland controllers to inquire about an alert that had been flashed on his cockpit computer screen to "beware of cockpit intrusion." Three minutes later, Cleveland controllers could hear screams over the cockpit's open microphone. Moments later, the hijackers, led by the Lebanese Ziad Samir Jarrah, took over the plane's controls, disengaged the autopilot, and told passengers, "Keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb board". Bingham and the other passengers were herded into the back of the plane. The curtain between first class and second class had been drawn, at which point the pilot and co-pilot were seen lying dead on the floor just outside the curtain, their throats having been cut. Within six minutes, the plane changed course and was heading for Washington, D.C. Several of the passengers made phone calls to loved ones, who informed them about the two planes that had crashed into the World Trade Center.^[12][13] Bingham phoned his mother, reporting that his plane had been hijacked and relaying his love for her.^[10]

After the hijackers veered the plane sharply south, the passengers decided to act.^[12] Bingham, along with Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick formed a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers.^[1] They were joined by other passengers, including Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, and William Cashman, along with flight attendants Sandra Bradshaw and Cee Cee Ross-Lyles, in discussing their options and voting on a course of action, ultimately deciding to storm the cockpit and take over the plane.^[10][12][13]

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, after the plane's voice data recorder was recovered, it revealed pounding and crashing sounds against the cockpit door and shouts and screams in English. "Let's get them!" a passenger cries. A hijacker shouts, "Allah akbar!" ("God is great"). Jarrah repeatedly pitched the plane to knock passengers off their feet, but the passengers apparently managed to invade the cockpit, where one was heard shouting, "In the cockpit. If we don't, we'll die." At 10:02 am, a hijacker orders, "Pull it down! Pull it down!" The 9/11 Commission later reported that the plane's control wheel was turned hard to the right, causing it to roll on its back and plow into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 580 miles an hour, killing everyone on board. The plane was twenty minutes of flying time away from its suspected target, the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. According to Vice President Dick Cheney, President George W. Bush had given the order to shoot the plane down had it continued its path to Washington.^[12]

Legacy

Bingham's name is located on Panel S-67 of the National September 11 Memorial's South Pool, along with those of other passengers of Flight 93.

Bingham was survived by his parents, stepmother^[10][11] and his former partner of six years, Paul Holm, who said Bingham had risked his life to protect the lives of others on occasions prior to 9/11, having twice successfully protected Holm from attempted muggings, one at gunpoint.^[14][15] Holm described Bingham as a brave, competitive man, saying, "He hated to lose — at anything." He was known to proudly display a scar he received after being gored at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.^[15]

U.S. Senators John McCain and Barbara Boxer honored Bingham on September 17, 2001, in a ceremony for San Francisco Bay Area victims of the attacks, presenting a folded American flag to Paul Holm.^[16]

The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament (referred to as the Bingham Cup), a biennial international rugby union competition predominantly for gay and bisexual men, was established in 2002 in his memory.^[17]

Bingham was posthumously awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2002.^[18]

The Eureka Valley Recreation Center's Gymnasium in San Francisco was renamed the Mark Bingham Gymnasium in August 2002.^[19]

Singer Melissa Etheridge dedicated the song "Tuesday Morning" in 2004 to his memory.^[20]

Beginning in 2005, the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement has been awarded by the California Alumni Association of the University of California, Berkeley to a young alumnus or alumna at its annual Charter Gala.^[21][22][23]

At the National 9/11 Memorial, Bingham and other passengers from Flight 93 are memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-67, along with other passengers on Flight 93.^[24]

At the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, Bingham's name is located on one of the 40 8-foot-tall panels of polished, 3-inch thick granite that comprise the Memorial's Wall of Names.^[11][25]

The 2012 feature-length documentary With You focuses on Bingham and the bond he had with his mother, Alice Hoagland, a former United Airlines flight attendant who, following his death, became a nationally known authority on airline safety and a champion of LGBT rights.^[26] Directed by Scott Gracheff, the film relies on the vast amount of video footage Bingham himself shot beginning in his teens until weeks before his death. The film's title is a popular rugby term, and one of Bingham's favorite expressions.^[3][27]

In the media

• ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 2 (2004), starring Jade Esteban Estrada
• United 93 (2006), portrayed by Cheyenne Jackson
• Flight 93 (2006), portrayed by Ty Olsson
• The Flight That Fought Back (2005), portrayed by Jason LeGrande

See also

• Gay icon
• Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament

References

Further reading

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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Bingham.

• Mark Bingham: a Tribute to a Wonderful Man, a Great Friend, a Loving Brother, and an American Hero.
• SFFOG.ORG Mark's rugby team, the S.F. Fog (Mark's Memorial page).
• Advocate Magazine article on Bingham.
• Daily Cal Article referencing Mark attacking Stanford tree.
• Mark Bingham Scholarship Fund.
• Official Website of The Bingham Cup.
• Team Bingham - Mark Bingham Scholarship fundraising Organization.
• Mark Bingham at the Internet Movie Database
• After September 11: Farewell to a Hero (California Monthly tribute).
• With You: The Mark Bingham Story
• Mark Bingham at Find a Grave

and individually at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site

and the combined memorial at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site

United Airlines Flight 93 Core topics Newark Liberty International Airport Flight 93 conspiracy theories Passengers Todd Beamer Mark Bingham Tom Burnett Jeremy Glick Lauren Grandcolas LeRoy Homer, Jr. Hijackers Ziad Jarrah Ahmed al-Nami Saeed al-Ghamdi Ahmed al-Haznawi Crash locations Shanksville, Pennsylvania Somerset County, Pennsylvania Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania Films United 93 Flight 93 The Flight That Fought Back I Missed Flight 93 Memorials Flight 93 National Memorial Temporary memorial Mall of America Flight 93 Memorial Highway West Coast Flight 93 Memorial USS Somerset Miscellaneous Let's roll Delta Air Lines Flight 1989 Steven O'Brien Flight of Valor Wikinews Commons Category