Cape May County Native Matt Vecere Killed in Ethiopian Airlines Plane Crash

A man who grew up in South Jersey was on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.

A message on the Twitter account of Swiss-based IQAir said Matt Vecere was on board the plane. It said he was remembered as "a great writer and an avid surfer with a passion for helping others."

According to his Facebook profile, he is from Sea Isle City. 6 ABC Action News was the first to report on the New Jersey connection to the crash.

HA bio on his own website said he grew up working for his parents working at "ranches and restaurants" before moving to Florida after he graduated from high school, but then returned to study biology and writing at Stockton University. His Linkedin profile said he graduated in 2002.

After graduation he worked at the The Shores United Methodist Home in Ocean City, according to his bio.

He was also co-founder of Emprofit, “Empower through Profit,” which he described as "a social business creating economic opportunities in resource-poor settings."

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the crash site on Tuesday outside the capital, Addis Ababa, with representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board. They join an Ethiopian-led investigation.

Eight Americans died on in the crash, according to Ethiopian Airlines.

The FAA said it expects Boeing will soon complete improvements to an automated anti-stall system suspected of contributing to the deadly crash of another new Boeing 737 Max 8 in October, and update training requirements and related flight crew manuals.

Boeing has said it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies.

The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed in clear weather six minutes of taking off for Nairobi, and a growing number of countries and airlines have grounded the new Boeing model as a result.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.