[phire]

They made two small trim up commands. But looking at the flight data graph, the stablizer on the bearly moves. The motor was probably stugling against the aerodynamic forces too.

Prehaps they didn't think it moved at all and decided they stablizer was jammed. 5 seconds later, MCAS commands down and because that's in the same direction as the aerodynamic forces it moved a lot easier.

[zaroth]

They are also pulling with all their might on the yoke and have been for several minutes. At this point probably fighting fatigue or even getting close to muscle failure (how many pounds of force for how long?) and starting to question their sanity.

Yeah, from my computer screen I can wonder why they didn’t sit on that ANU switch hard and long. But in that cockpit Boeing had already sealed their fate.