Ok let's look at it another way. Do you think it's even remotely likely that Boeing haven't had one of their 737 Max aircraft try this out at a safe altitude? T

Ok let's look at it another way. Do you think it's even remotely likely that Boeing haven't had one of their 737 Max aircraft try this out at a safe altitude? They staked the future of the aircraft by saying they believe they are safe to fly. I've never suggested having a trim runaway close to the ground is trivial. It's certainly going to result in brown trousers when it happens, but it should be within the abilities of a well trained crew to handle. Following the outcry over Lion air I just don't believe a pilot on type wouldn't have known the procedures for getting the aircraft to a safe altitude and disabling the stab trim. As a pilot your hands are on the controls. You notice pretty instantly that your having to pull the nose up. You instinctively reach for the trim control on the yoke. This disables the MCAS system for 5 seconds. You get the pitch forces under control. A few seconds later MCAS decides you've still got the nose too high because of a faulty sensor and tries to trim it back down once more. How many times before you remember that fatal bug from that crash a few months ago. Maybe twice? Three times tops.