Alice Hoagland told reporter Amanda del Castillo of ABC 7 News that Senator John McCain helped her through the loss of her son, Mark Bingham, who was killed aboard United Flight 93 during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
McCain told students at the University of California at Berkeley that Mark may have saved his life, as Flight 93 was believed to have been headed for the U.S. Capitol when Bingham and other passengers and crew members fought back against the hijackers and brought the plane down in a field in rural Pennsylvania, injuring no one on the ground.
McCain told the crowd, “I may very well owe my life to Mark and the others who summoned the enormous courage and love necessary to deny those depraved, hateful men a terrible triumph. Such a debt, you incur for life.”
Mark Bingham was photographed with Senator McCain in 2000.
Hoagland told the reporter that she never wrote to John McCain about how important his words were to her after Mark’s death.
“I’m going to go to my grave regretting that I did not write to John McCain when I should have months ago. When I could’ve expressed my appreciation and love for him and his fine record of accomplishments for the United States of America,” she said.
