The fight continued for the next five minutes, during which time the MCAS mounted more than 20 attacks and began to prevail.
3 things come to mind
1 The stick shaker and indications are already a past event, they figured it out and moved on.
2 They knew that flaps out worked and that retracting the flaps produced a "runaway trim" ( they retracted flaps after take-off, experienced the mcas runaway, set flaps back, it stopped, THEN they retracted the flaps AGAIN ! )
3 They knew that the trim was running away from them AND that they could stop it with electric trim operation
On the previous flight, this happened :
Finally the ghost in the jump seat intervened. It is impossible to know if he was a better airman than the pilots in the front or simply had the advantage of an overview. Either way, he recommended the obvious — shutting off the electric trim by flipping the cutout switches. The captain flipped the switches, the trim stopped running away and the MCAS was disabled. It was that easy.
With the captain’s stick shaker continuing to rattle and the trim switches set to the off (cutout) position, the crew flew to Jakarta without further issue, adjusting trim as sometimes necessary by use of the manual trim wheels mounted on both sides of the central pedestal, and landed just before midnight. Investigators do not seem to have explored why the pilots required nearly five minutes to handle what normally might have been a 30-second adventure, or why they required a cockpit guest to provide the solution
It took 3 pilots and the jumpseater to save the day ! They did 1 thing right though, they determined the probable fault of the stick shaker and dealt with it and went forward. In the accident flight , they didn't deal with the stick shaker in the same manner and it allowed a higher and confusing workload
IMHO an experienced pilot with good airmanship would:
1) leave the bloody flaps in a position where nothing bad happens and reduce power and land 2) Operate the trim
if necessary as it was effective in getting back to a trimmed position ( they already knew that ) and 3) shut off the trim switches because there was obviously a trim runaway of some sort ( unreliable trim operation) and land asap . Even with the stick shaker AND especially now a runaway trim, it should have been obvious to say " to hell with this , leave the F______ flaps alone, shut off the trim and manually fly to the nearest suitable runway, and screw the ATC" !
In this order I would prioritize the fault 1) Boeing 2) the FAA and 3 ) the Pilots ( When I say Pilots, I mean the pilots failure to follow simple trim runaway procedure, fly the airplane, prioritize and land asap. I am also meaning the airlines for their overemphasis on automation, inexperienced pilots, lack of airmanship and economic / corrupt forces causing an atmosphere not conducive to safety ETC!