> forces a nose down and they cant fight the controls.
But that's not what happened. According to every report, it is possible to take back control, it's just very much not intuitive and the situation was confusing.
According to the Seattle Times
> However on both accident flights, the angle-of-attack sensor failure set off multiple alerts causing distraction and confusion from the moment of takeoff, even before MCAS kicked in.
> On the Ethiopian Airlines flight, for example, a “stick shaker” noisily vibrated the pilot’s control column throughout the flight, warning the plane was in danger of a stall, which it wasn’t; a computerized voice repeating a loud “Don’t sink!” warned that the jet was too close to the ground; a “clacker” making a very loud clicking sound signaled the jet was going too fast; and multiple warning lights told the crew that the speed, altitude and other readings on their instruments were unreliable.
You can find some of the US reports complaining about MCAS here https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/5766398/ASRS-Reports-... and it includes
> I manually positioned the thrust levers ASAP. This resolved the
threat
Then there's
> B737 MAX First Officer reported that the aircraft pitched nose down after engaging
autopilot on departure. Autopilot was disconnected and flight continued to
destination
> I called "descending" just prior to the GPWS sounding "don't sink, don't
sink." The Captain immediately disconnected the autopilot and pitched into a climb
Another
> Takeoff and climb in light to moderate turbulence. After flaps 1 to "up" and
above clean "MASI up speed" with LNAV engaged I looked at and engaged A
Autopilot. As I was returning to my PFD (Primary Flight Display) PM (Pilot
Monitoring) called "DESCENDING" followed by almost an immediate: "DONT SINK
DONT SINK!"
I immediately disconnected AP (Autopilot) (it WAS engaged as we got full horn
etc.) and resumed climb