[treis]

>They're absolutely not climbing 14,000 feet in that condition. The control forces on the column in this situation are absurd. Their arms couldn't have held them level for more than a few minutes max.

If I'm reading the charts right it took them about a minute to go from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. So even if they hold on for just a few minutes more they're almost to 14,000 feet.

And you're taking speculation based on assumed facts too seriously. If they were struggling to keep the plane level then their simulation was different. In reality the plane was climbing all the way up until they enabled the electric trim and MCAS kicked in.