Mark Wahlberg: I'd Have Stopped 9/11 Hijacking

Says he would have prevented plane from hitting World Trade Center
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2012 2:12 PM CST
Mark Wahlberg: I'd Have Stopped 9/11 Hijacking
Mark Wahlberg with sons Michael and Brendan at Staples Center in Los Angeles last year.   (Getty Images)

Men's Journal has a profile of Mark Wahlberg in its February issue, and one quote in particular is generating some buzz: He says that if he were on one of the 9/11 planes that hit the World Trade Center, things would have been different:

  • "If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.'"

TMZ ran the quote by the widow of Flight 93 victim Thomas Burnett, who isn't happy about what she sees as "grandstanding": "I think hindsight is 20/20 and it's insignificant to say what you would have done if you weren't there," says Deena Burnett-Bailey. (For the record, Wahlberg apparently wasn't talking about the Pennsylvania flight, but one of the two out of Boston that hit the WTC. He's given the matter a lot of thought because he had been scheduled to fly from Boston to LA that week but changed his plans late, notes the Huffington Post.) Update: Wahlberg offered a mea culpa via TMZ for his "irresponsible" comments: "I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive," he said. "It was certainly not my intention." (More Mark Wahlberg stories.)

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