Originally Posted by
Organfreak
I'm only a lowly SLF and yet, from reading the thread, it's quite clear to me that you can turn off the autotrim on the MAX, which is what they do in response to the alarm @ 2:57! Then you can plainly see them trimming by hand.
I'm not sure it's quite as clear as you think it is. The guidance in the Emergency Airworthiness Directive states:
Disengage autopilot and control airplane pitch attitude with control column and main electric trim as required. If relaxing the column causes the trim to move, set stabilizer trim switches to CUTOUT. If runaway continues, hold the stabilizer trim wheel against rotation and trim the airplane manually.
To me, that last sentence says "You can turn it off, but it might still keep running anyway" I'm not a 737 systems expert by any means, but I don't know how else you can reasonably interpret that sentence.