Originally Posted by
ernst_mulder
A (possibly stupid) question from SLF,
What I am wondering about is why, after a struggle with MCAS, the plane ends up in a nosedown dive. Wouldn't the pilots in principle be able to keep fighting the unwanted trim commands indefinitely? Also earlier in this thread I read that it is possible to fly an airplane even with a full downward trimmed HS. Could another mechanical problem be the cause, i.e. elevator(s) breaking off after too much stress trying to compensate for the full downward trimmed HS?
The faster that the plane is going the greater the force required to oppose it and the more violent the reaction of the plane to the control surface, At low altitude and high speed it would be just about impossible to either overcome the stick force or to recover even if you could do so. The two obvious questions are why didn't the plane gain altitude along the way and why was it going so fast at low altitude if in fact it couldn't climb.