Gay 9/11 passenger’s mum stands in Moussaoui case
The mother of a gay 9/11 Flight 93 passenger who tried to overthrow hijackers appeared in the sentencing trial of one of the planners, Zacarias Moussaoui this week.
Mark Bingham was on United Flight 93 on 11 September 2001, bound for a collision with the Capitol or the White House, until heroic passengers confronted the terrorists, and the plane crashed onto a Pennsylvania field.
Mr Bingham’s mum, Alice Hoagland, has stood at the stage of deciding if Moussaoui, who admits conspiring to carry out suicide hijacking attacks on New York and Washington, should be sentenced to death.
She is against the death penalty, Ms Hoagland told the trial, “I would like to be a voice for reconciliation in the world.
Since her son’s death she has become a campaigner for stronger airline security, gay rights and understanding radical Islam.
The action taken on Flight 93 has been turned into a film due for release at the end of April.
3,000 people were killed on 11 September 2001 when 19 Al Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania.