A year after plane crash, Ethiopians mull how to honor their lost beloved

TULU FARA, Ethiopia－Gebru Ketema was outside tending cattle on the morning when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plunged from the sky into a field near his village, killing all 157 people on board.

In the hectic days that followed, he and his neighbors welcomed rescue workers into their homes, offering meals and "sharing in the grief", he recalls.

A year later, the crash site－now surrounded by an unfinished wooden fence－sees little activity besides visits from mourners bearing flowers.

"This place has become famous because of the crash," Gebru said. "We've been told they will put some kind of monument here, but the plan appears to be stuck."

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the crash on Tuesday, Ethiopian Airlines has said little about how it may develop the site.

As recently as January, it hoped to use the anniversary to announce the winner of an architectural design competition for a memorial, according to a draft document on the plans.

But that plan now appears to be on hold after the document drew pushback from some victims' families, who objected to what they perceived as a rushed timeline, according to Zekarias Asfaw, who lost his brother in the crash.

The dust-up highlighted concerns about whether Ethiopian Airlines was committed to honoring the dead in a sensitive way, said Zekarias, who serves on a committee involved in discussions about a possible memorial.

Zekarias said: "You have a company desperate to move on, and you have families saying, 'No, we haven't even had a chance to come together and start this journey'."

Widely honored

The proposed design competition was expected to attract bids for both a monument and a park, according to the document, dated January 24.

The monument could feature "contemplation areas" and a visitors' center, and elements of the park included footpaths and trees.

After reviewing bids, judges were to make a selection, with a public exhibition for the winner to begin on the anniversary.

At least two smaller sites honoring Flight 302 victims have been set up in the capital Addis Ababa in the past year.

At the headquarters of the Airline Pilots' Association of Ethiopia, members named a football pitch after Yared Getachew, the captain of Flight 302, who had been an avid player.

A plaque for Yared is mounted on a concrete wall along one of the sidelines, bearing the inscription "Forever Loved".

Across town, the Holy Trinity Cathedral houses a memorial for Yared and the 16 other Ethiopian fatalities.

Plaques there feature two photos of each victim and a black-and-white Ethiopian Airlines logo.

Flight 302 victims are also honored privately, even by people who had no direct connection to the tragedy.

Yared Getachew, a lawyer in Addis, remembers the sadness he felt when he learned of the crash, followed by surprise when he realized he had the same name as the captain.

Though he knew no one on the plane, he decided to attend a memorial at Holy Trinity Cathedral in the days after the crash "to pass on my condolences".

In the year since the accident, he and his 12-year-old son Isaac have developed a ritual to remember the dead every time they fly.

Before the crash, Isaac, an aviation buff, would typically spend takeoffs telling his father everything that was happening: what the pilots were doing, or how flaps and slats on the wings worked to generate lift.

These days, though, Yared and Isaac start a timer on their phones and sit in silence for six minutes: the time it took Flight 302 to go down.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE