Originally Posted by
sgrd0q
I am assuming they kept accelerating and probably realized they could not maintain level flight in that configuration due to the control column pressure, and they could not move the trim wheel manually, again presumably because of the aerodynamic forces involved at that speed.
No need to assume. It's a fact.
Originally Posted by
sgrd0q
If we put aside whether they should or should not deviate from a procedure, whether they should or should not exceed Vmo, and everything else they may or may not have done right - at some point they found themselves with electric stab trim restored.
We really can't put those things aside, because in context, they're everything. They're the reason everyone is dead. They're the cause of the loss of the aircraft.
They didn't "find themselves" with trim restored. That sounds too much like a trumpian alternate fact.
They restored trim. They'd put the genie in the bottle, and they let it out. It cost them their lives.
Originally Posted by
sgrd0q
Right or wrong, they did it. We can analyze and debate what they did right and wrong prior to that point, but lets put that aside, as it detracts from my main point - which is that after the electric trim was restored, at that point one would assume they would aggressively trim with the thumb switches (and in the process override MCAS), instead they barely did anything - two clicks at around 5:43:11 and 5:43:15. That in my mind is incredible. Then the MCAS commands nose down trim at what looks like 5:43:20 for about six seconds and shortly after they lose control.
The aircraft was accelerating the entire time. Control forces were getting heavier. The overspeed clacker was sounding. Power was pushed forward; altitude loss, airspeed gain, the distraction of differing cockpit indications, and a perception that trim was not working; with increasing nose down trim, and an increasing nose down force, at some point it was all they could do to pull back on the control column, both of them, and their only other effort to leverage a nose-up pitching force came in the form of a significant power application. Ironically, it only made things worse. We know the result.