Originally Posted by
GlueBall
Without having to THINK, an experienced captain with sufficient manual flying skills would not need to know if MCAS, ordinary runaway stab trim or ambiguous autopilot stab trim inputs were causing the uncommanded nose-down trim. Such trim anomaly at low altitude would automatically trigger a self-preserving INSTINCTIVE response of stopping the trim-in-motion forward moving stabilizer wheel either with his knee, right thigh or right hand and simultaneously ordering the F/O to cut off the electric stab trim switches, or doing that by himself, while simultaneously clicking off the A/P and A/T.
My bold in above.
The above does not mention the need to first get the aircraft in trim -before- cut off of electric trim which appears to be the fatal action by Ethiopian crew. Although not confirmed yet it appears that they were unable to use the manual trim wheel once they activated the cutouts.
Not trying to re-open a long running discussion just pointing out that things are never as simple as one might hope.