's North Pool, along with those of other passengers of Flight 11. Lewin was reportedly stabbed aboard
American Airlines Flight 11 during its hijacking in the
September 11 attacks while traveling to a business meeting in
Los Angeles. A 2001 FAA memo suggests he may have been stabbed by
Satam al-Suqami after attempting to thwart the hijacking. According to the memo, Lewin was seated in business class in seat 9B, near hijackers
Mohamed Atta,
Abdulaziz al-Omari, and al-Suqami. Initial reports indicated that he had been shot by al-Suqami, but the final draft of the memo omitted all references to gunfire. According to
9/11 Commission Report, Lewin was stabbed by one of the hijackers, likely Satam al-Suqami, who was seated directly behind him. Flight attendants who contacted airline officials from the plane reported that Lewin's throat was slashed, presumably by the terrorist sitting behind him. The
9/11 Commission speculated that Lewin, being a veteran of the Israeli military, may have attempted to confront Atta or Omari, who had been seated in front of him, unaware that al-Suqami was sitting just behind him. Lewin was identified as the first victim of the September 11 attacks. Lewin was survived by his wife Anne and his two sons, Eitan and Itamar, who were five and eight years old, respectively, at the time of the attacks. In July 2004, it was reported that Lewin's recovered remains had been identified from
Ground Zero. Canadian actor Brad Hampton portrayed Lewin in the
BBC docudrama
Zero Hour Season 1: Episode 2 (2004) called "The Last Hour of Flight 11". After his death, the intersection of Main and Vassar Streets in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, was renamed Danny Lewin Square in his honor. At the
National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Lewin is memorialized at the North Pool, on Panel N-75. Lewin is the subject of the 2013 biography
No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet by Molly Knight Raskin. According to Raskin, "Because of Akamai, almost every major news site remained up and running [on September 11], a feat that proved everything Danny promised to be possible". ==Awards==