Mark Wahlberg Retracts Comments About 9/11 Attack

Mark Wahlberg apologized today (January 18) for saying he would have taken down the hijackers in the 9/11 attacks.
The actor said that if had been on flight United 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, the plane wouldn’t have crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

The Hollywood star was originally scheduled to fly from New York to Boston on the morning of Sept. 11. He was actually booked to fly on the flight that was hijacked by the Al Qaeda terrorists. Miraculously, Walberg instead canceled the flight and flew private to Toronto, Canada instead.

During an interview, Wahlberg told the Men’s Journal that he believed the results of flight 93 would have unfolded differently had he been on board.

“If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did,” Wahlberg tells the magazine. “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.'”

After several family members of the victims showed their discomfort with the actor’s comments, he took back his statement telling TMZ, “To speculate about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with. I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention.”

Subscribe To The ABS Newsletter — Get our stories in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Latest from Atlanta Black Star

Back to top