Actor Mark Wahlberg is in retreat after contending in a national magazine interview published this week that things would have turned out differently if he had been on one of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001.
Asked in an interview for the February Men's Journal about nearly being aboard American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles that crashed into the World Trade Center, he said: "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.' "
Wahlberg's comments drew a pointed response from the widow of Bloomington native Tom Burnett, who was on another airliner hijacked that day that crashed in a Pennsylvania field after a passenger insurrection that Burnett helped lead.
Speaking with the website TMZ, Deena Burnett-Bailey said: "The plan for Flight 93 was foiled by heroes. For [Wahlberg] to speculate that his presence on board could have stopped everything is silly and disrespectful. Sounds like someone is grandstanding.
"Does Mark Wahlberg have a pilot's license? Then I think hindsight is 20/20, and it's insignificant to say what you would have done if you weren't there."
The star of the new film "Contraband" issued an apology Wednesday, saying that "to speculate about such a situation is ridiculous to begin with, and to suggest I would have done anything differently than the passengers on that plane was irresponsible.
"I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive; it was certainly not my intention."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
