If MCAS is a key contributor to this crash, how does it fit with the fr24 data for the flight ?
For MCAS to be implicated, the pilots have disengaged AP or it has disengaged itself, right ?
When did that happen? At the two minute mark ?
There is then an ascent to 5000 feet which is untidily maintained for six minutes before the final dive. If MCAS is aggressively STAB trimming the nose down during those six minutes, the pilots must have been aware of that fact and compensating / counteracting it. Otherwise, the plane would have crashed much earlier, correct ?
The pilots would also have read the previous crew's report about STS running reverse, and hence stab trim would have been at the forefront of their mind in the event of flight control difficulties.
Two questions emerge :
1. Knowing the stabiliser was pitching the nose down, why didn't they activate the CUTOUT switch ?
2. Knowing the stabiliser was pitching the nose down, and having counteracted it successfully for six minutes, how did they eventually lose control of the aircraft ?