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.