Former University of California rugby players have marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by remembering Mark Bingham, the Los Gatos man who was among the passengers who fought back against hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93.
Ray Lehner and Mas Morimoto, who played alongside Bingham for Cal, spoke about their former team-mate and the lasting impact of his actions during the flight, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to storm the cockpit.
Bingham, 31, was travelling from Newark to San Francisco on September 11, 2001, when the aircraft was hijacked. Passengers learned that other planes had struck the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon before organising an effort to regain control.
The National Park Service records that Bingham phoned his mother during the hijacking to tell her the plane had been seized by men who claimed to have a bomb. He was among those who joined the counterattack before Flight 93 came down near Shanksville.
Lehner, who now teaches in Oakland, said the events remained in his thoughts whenever he boarded an aircraft. He has also spoken to pupils about Bingham’s role in preventing the plane from reaching its intended target in Washington.
Morimoto recalled Bingham as a sociable and good-natured member of Cal’s 1991 national championship squad. Bingham graduated from the university in 1993 and played as a back-row forward for the Golden Bears.
Cal rugby continues to honour him each September 11 with a memorial run across the Berkeley campus. His name is also attached to a university award and an endowment supporting the team’s back-row players.
Bingham’s legacy also lives on through the Bingham Cup, an international tournament for gay and inclusive rugby established after his death. He had played for the San Francisco Fog, an inclusive club that has continued to promote his memory and his contribution to the sport.
For his former team-mates, however, the remembrance remains rooted in the person they knew before the tragedy: an energetic friend, committed player and popular presence whose courage on Flight 93 ensured that Mark Bingham’s name would be remembered far beyond the rugby field.
