Ethiopian airliner down in Africa

[Sailvi767]

Originally Posted by OLVpilot

Not really. The crew put that aircraft into a stall after they failed to apply basic aeronautical techniques for stall recovery.

Big difference between that and an aircraft pitching uncontrollably nose down at low altitudes.

A aircraft with uncommanded trim does not pitch uncontrollably nose down. As the trim motor adds nose down trim up elevator can compensate until the stabilizer overpowers the elevator. At that point the nose will start down. Normally it’s a smooth progression unless the aircraft is on autopilot. The autopilot disengaging with a out of trim condition will cause a more violent pitching moment. Prior to that however there should be several warning signs. The fix takes about 1 second to activate and the flight should be able to continue with manual trim. Had it happen on a 727. It was a non issue. Trim ran away nose down, trim disconnected and flight continued.