Addis Ababa | By the time he was 29, Yared Getachew was the youngest captain at Ethiopian Airlines. Despite his relative youth, he had spent a decade with the carrier, eventually piloting wide-body jets that crossed continents and oceans.

Like so many of the airline’s pilots before him, Getachew, who died on Sunday in the crash of Flight 302, was a graduate of the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy. The competitive school, which has been training pilots since 1964, has become an intrinsic part of the company’s campaign to become Africa’s dominant carrier.