A close relative of mine is a recently retired SWA pilot. Here's a text he sent me when I inquired about the MAX.
"There's a switch to disengage the MCAS system (pitches nose down at max electric trim motor speed if AOA sensors sense nose is too high). Boeing didn't put it in the pilot training manual that a faulty AOA sensor would put the nose down 17.5 degrees and trigger the stabilizer trim motor into the high-speed mode. Pulling back on the yoke is the natural reaction when this happens, but the correct action is to reach behind yourself to the back of the center console and disengage a switch that sticks up less than an inch.
The Indonesian pilots fought the elevator for 17 seconds before crashing, but it doesn't matter how hard you pull on the yoke, the 17-degree dive mode is going to return until you disable the trim motor.
Now, after November, everyone should have been made aware that the MAX has this fatal design error (It should never have been certified to do this), but it's not an easy process to redo the entire software design of the MCAS when there are so many systems, autopilot functions, fly control components, and interfaces together. It was supposed to have come out in January, but it got pushed back to April. They can say all they want about the government shutdown not delaying this, but I don't believe it. The FAA is responsible for signing off on every design change Boeing makes. The parameters of this MCAS system are way out of kilter for what its purpose should be. 17.5 degrees nose down command with full high-speed trim going is a handful of airplane for one pilot to handle with both hands. If the other guy doesn't get that switch turned off, they are going down.
SWAPA said before Trump's announcement that the MAX was safe to fly. Yeah, because this thing has been pounded into everyone's head since the first crash, so US pilots are keyed to disengage the system. It's still my opinion that it's a design flaw (software fix).
Boeing is gonna be on the hook for all the lost revenue for these canceled flights."
I sent another text saying that as a non-pilot I don't understand it all but get what he's saying. He replied again,
"The new engines have so much more power, which causes a pitch up from where they're located when the power is advanced, hence the MCAS system. They just decided not to tell anyone what it did, so some idiot marketing decision maker left it out of the training manual. They're lucky one of those crashes didn't happen in US airspace because the victim liability claims are unlimited here for willful negligence."