Criticisms of the crew's actions were "seriously misinformed" Tewolde GebreMariam told the BBC. He was responding to claims from a US congressman that mistakes by the pilots were a factor in the aircraft's failure.

The Boeing 737 Max went down just six minutes after take-off in Addis Ababa.

The loss of Ethiopian flight ET302 was the second fatal accident involving a 737 Max in the space of five months. A near identical aircraft, owned by the Indonesian carrier Lion Air, went down in the sea off Jakarta in October 2018.

Preliminary reports into both accidents have suggested that they were triggered by a flight control system deploying at the wrong time, due to a faulty sensor.

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