Last updated: January 23, 2026
Person
Mark Bingham
Quick Facts
Significance:
Flight 93 Passenger
Date of Birth:
05/22/1970
Date of Death:
09/11/2001
Age: 31
Hometown: San Francisco, California
Occupation: Owner of The Bingham Group
Reason for travel: Business, and to participate in a friend’s wedding
Mark Bingham was establishing a new office on the east coast for his California-based public relations firm. The successful and adventuresome executive traveled frequently for both work and pleasure. A former rugby champion at the University of California, Berkeley, Bingham was a valued teammate on the San Francisco Fog, a gay rugby football club. On the morning of September 11, Bingham overslept and nearly missed his flight; he was the last passenger to board. During the hijacking, he phoned his mother reporting that his plane had been hijacked by men who said they had a bomb. In addition to his mother, Bingham was survived by his father and stepmother.
"He was really the jewel in our crown, and we loved him. We loved him a lot. He really brought me up. He taught me life’s most important lessons. He taught me how important it was to be able to challenge yourself everyday and to challenge yourself in sports competition and thereby, grow. And he taught me how important it was to be able to lose and come back and try to win. He taught me how important it was to have fun." [1]
- Alice Hoagland, mother
Left: Mark with his mother. Photo courtsey of Amanda Mark. Right: Mark (right) with his father. NPS/FLNI 9049c
"He was a big, strapping guy and I always thought he would be a sports hero. I thought he would be a football, a professional football player, and he went on to achieve fame in a different way. He’s just a terrific guy. I’m glad he’s going to be remembered for, for being a hero, whether it’s a sports hero or perhaps even more importantly, this kind of hero: humanity hero." [2]
- Lee Hogan, maternal uncle
Left: High School portrait of Mark in his rugby uniform. Photo courtsey of Amanda Mark. Right: The United States Rugby Hall of Fame Chairman's Award, presented October 29, 2021, honoring Mark Bingham. NPS/FLNI 7965
"And, and the thing that really has astounded me […] is the number of gay people that I have met since who […] tell me how he inspired them to have the courage and the strength to come out to their family and friends. And I think that by default, Mark, who really wanted to change people’s perspective on gay, has done that. I don’t think this is how he intended to do it, but I think that he has. And the Bingham Cup has just grown from a couple teams in San Francisco- I was there in, in June [2010] in Minneapolis to a world class tournament with fantastic rugby and all these gay men who always wanted to play sports, but, but never did, and now they do. So, it’s had a, an amazing impact in ways that you could never have imagined and I’m sure Mark would be extraordinarily proud of the impact he’s had on, on these people’s lives for the better." [3]
-Amanda Mark, best friend and long-time supporter of the Bingham Cup
Footnotes
[1] Flight 93 National Memorial Oral History Collection/OH 374
[2] Flight 93 National Memorial Oral History Collection/OH 620
[3] Flight 93 National Memorial Oral History Collection/OH 631