Danny Lewin fought back first.
The 31-year-old American-Israeli tech billionaire and former captain in Israel’s most elite special forces unit was seated in business class on American Airlines Flight 11 — one row behind hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta and terrorist Abdulaziz al-Omari.
When the takeover began, Lewin didn’t wait to see what would happen. Fluent in Arabic and hardened by years of counterterrorism training in Sayeret Matkal, he rose from seat 9B and moved to confront the hijackers as they pushed toward the cockpit.
He never saw the blade coming from behind. Satam al-Suqami, seated directly behind him in 10B, struck before Lewin could reach Atta.
“A man in first class had his throat slashed.”
Flight attendants Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong radioed American Airlines with the grim news: the passenger in seat 9B was dead. The 9/11 Commission later determined Lewin was stabbed during the takeover, probably by al-Suqami.
Twenty-five minutes later, Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Danny Lewin became the first person lost in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Born in Denver in 1970, Lewin spent his teenage years in Jerusalem — where he skipped class to hit the gym and eventually won the title of Mr. Teenage Israel in a bodybuilding competition.
When it came time for military service, he pushed his way into Sayeret Matkal, the ultra-secretive special forces unit whose ranks included Yoni Netanyahu and his younger brother, future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Foreign-born recruits were almost unheard of in the unit.
Lewin defied the odds. He survived two years of brutal selection, rose to captain, and led dangerous covert missions.
When he hung up his uniform, he traded guns for algorithms. Lewin studied at Israel’s elite Technion before heading to MIT, where he teamed up with applied math professor Tom Leighton. Together, they founded Akamai Technologies, inventing algorithms that eliminated web congestion and practically built the modern fast internet.
“Danny loved really hard challenges, loved to solve problems people thought were impossible.”
By his late twenties, Lewin was a dot-com billionaire with a wife, Anne, and two young sons. He was known for his relentless drive, once famously walking into workrooms to bark at engineers: “You’re behind!”
On the night of September 10, 2001, Lewin stayed up agonizing over company layoffs brought on by the dot-com crash. He got just one hour of sleep before boarding Flight 11 in Boston for a business trip to Los Angeles.
He never made it. But even in his final moments, the warrior inside the mathematician refused to back down.
“I’m sure at some point it became clear to him what was going on,” said early Akamai investor Todd Dagres. “And I’m sure he acted. … But he couldn’t get them all.”
Today, Lewin is buried in Sharon, Massachusetts. In Israel, his name is etched into a 9/11 memorial made of Ground Zero steel — the only memorial outside the U.S. listing every single victim.
Danny Lewin was a titan in life, and in his final seconds, a true American and Israeli hero.
The first victim of 9/11 was Danny Lewin. Born in Denver, raised in Jerusalem. Captain in Sayeret Matkal. Mathematician. Co-founder of Akamai – the company that still carries a huge share of the internet.
On the morning of September 11, 2001 he boarded American Airlines Flight… pic.twitter.com/e4Eawv9IcT
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) September 10, 2026
