Matteson Army Captain Among Dead In Ethiopian Plane Crash

MATTESON, IL — A U.S. Army captain from Matteson was among the 157 people who died Sunday in the Ethiopian plan crash outside Addis Ababa.

Antoine Lewis, 39, was on board the flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed, his family confirmed to multiple media outlets.

His family told ABC7 that Lewis was stationed in Canada and had traveled to Africa on vacation and to do missionary work. He left behind a wife and a 15-year-old son.

Lewis, they said, was a decorated captain who had joined the military in high school and worked his way through the ranks.

“He had told us he was excited about it. I will say that plane went down with him doing what he wanted to do most, and that was to stretch out and embrace our mother country,” his mother, Antoinette Lewis, told CBS2 Chicago.

The plane, a 737 Max 8, went down in clear weather shortly after it took off Sunday. The jetliner's two flight recorders have been found.