(CNN) The pilots of a jet that crashed in Ethiopia, killing all on board, used a flight simulator to learn how to fly the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane, the airline told CNN.

Flight 302 crashed March 10, six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa. It was the second disaster involving a new 737 Max 8 plane in less than six months.

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said the simulator the pilots trained on can't replicate the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a new automated feature on the 737 Max 8 planes that crash investigators are scrutinizing.

"As far as the training is concerned ... we've gone according to the Boeing recommendation and FAA-approved one. We are not expected to speculate or to imagine something that doesn't exist at all," GebreMariam said Saturday, rejecting previous media reports that the pilots of the ill-fated flight did not train to fly the new model of jet on a simulator. The airline said the simulator had been up and running since January.

GebreMariam said he learned about the MCAS system after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an airworthiness directive following the Lion Air crash over the Java Sea in Indonesia in October. It left 189 people dead.

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