Originally Posted by
phylosocopter
If your scenario is correct , perhaps the captain became aware that his instruments could not be correct and this is why he handed control to the first officer?
I might be wrong, but I don't remember anything suggesting the Ethiopian captain handed the controls over to the first officer. According to the preliminary report the captain asked the FO to help trim up and pull up, and that they were both pulling up.
There might be a confusion here between the Ethiopian accident and the Indonesian Lion air accident, where the FDR traces suggest the captain handed control to the FO before the crash.