Boston's Ethiopian community comes together after fatal plane crash

A historic fight for independence brought Boston's Ethiopian community together Sunday, but it was overshadowed by the fatal plane crash back home.

The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed after taking off for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.

>>MORE: Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi crashes, killing all 157 on board, including 8 Americans

"What happened is a tragedy," Yoftahe Gebru of the Massachusetts Ethiopian Support Association said. "None of us expected it."

The crash left eight Americans and 18 Canadians dead, and there was a minute of silent prayer back in Boston for the victims and their families.

"This is sad news to hear, so we are very saddened," Wondimu Yirga from the Massachusetts Ethiopian Support Association said. "We are mourning today."

Many of the passengers aboard were from other countries, but there was concern among the local community about the crew members.

Hearing about the crash, Gebru's thoughts immediately turned to a good friend who is a captain for Ethiopian Airlines.

"So my reaction was to try to find out if he was one of the pilots, and thank God that he wasn't" Gebru said.

With a modern fleet and a good safety record, Ethiopian Airlines is a source of pride for the community.

"Good reputation," Yirga said. "Everybody wants to fly Ethiopian Airlines."

Under more scrutiny than the airline in this crash is the plane itself, as it's the second time a 737 Max 8 has crashed on takeoff in the last five months.

In late October of 2018, a faulty sensor on a Lion Air jet caused it to pitch nose down.

"The problem in the Lion Air case shouldn't be happening here, because all of the pilots have been trained about what happened there and there were some fairly straightforward fixes," John Hansman, PhD, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said.

Hansman noted that flying on commercial airliners gets safer when tragedies happen.

"There's so much intensity of interest when a commercial airplane goes down, that the system is very introspective," Hansman said. "There's a whiole safety culture within the system that's at work. Every time we find a problem, we fix it."

Cox Media Group