ENGOSHURA, Kenya — John Quindos wailed and hyperventilated so violently that officials rushed him to a first aid station. Then, as the magnitude sunk in, he lost his voice.

He had been standing at Nairobi airport waiting for the arrival of his wife, his daughter and her three children. He was particularly excited to greet his granddaughter, Ruby, born nine months earlier in Canada.

He had never seen her before. He never got the chance.

The plane his family was aboard — a Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines — smashed into a field on Sunday, killing all 157 people aboard.

“My heart is on fire,” he said quietly at his modest farmhouse in the Kenyan highlands, receiving a stream of mourners with almost preternatural grace.