I have grown slightly cross eyed following the huge volume of posts concerning the tragic events with the 737 MAX. One item that seems to have been mentioned just once (or thereabouts) is that things only started to go pear shaped immediately following flap retraction. Surely the clue should have been obvious to any adequate pilot and the previous configuration restored. As far as I understand things that would have saved the day. I have done a fair amount of 737 work but that was back in the day when they worked like normal aeroplanes (737 200& 400) so I may be wrong. This principle, however, has saved my life twice and I don't pretend to be anything other than an average operator. Am I wrong?