Originally Posted by
warbirdfinder
Why would a pilot reengage a failed system? If they wanted to control the stab trim after turning of the electric stab trim switches, why did they not use the manual trim wheel?
Speculatively with both pilots hauling back on the control column and no electric trim, the moment any of them lets go to give the wheel a try the nose would dip down again. Additionally, at nose low and high speed with stab overloaded the wheel might have been much too stiff to both move and do so enough times to make an impact.
I hate to speculate on this but it points to proper action by crew finding themselves unable to bring nose up with manual means and reactivating the cutouts to regain electric trim capability. (Which should come back and if used should stop MCAS either way, unless...)