ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, echoed with the wailing of the bereaved on Sunday morning. Mourners dressed in black had streamed into the vast churchyard, waving pictures of loved ones who died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 a week earlier.

But the mourners did not have bodies to bury.

Many families do not expect ever to recover remains. The victims died in a fiery explosion when the plane hurtled to the ground minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people — crew and passengers — aboard. In lieu of remains, witnesses have said, officials gave relatives scorched earth from the crash site.

On Sunday, empty coffins made their way into the churchyard on black vans while women beat their chests and screamed in anguish.

“They fell from the sky,” one woman lamented of the crash victims when the vans inched by, trailed by somber airline employees in green uniforms. “Where will I go with my questions?”