I just took a look at the take-off procedure in the checklist, and it lists that one should extend flaps before and during take-off/ascent. The checklist says t

I just took a look at the take-off procedure in the checklist, and it lists that one should extend flaps before and during take-off/ascent. The checklist says that one should start retracting the flaps at 1000'AGL, the altitude where they seem to have started having problems. MCAS is disabled while flaps are extended. It would have activated the second they retracted the flaps.