From a retired pilot friend... modern planes are equipped with computers to make many decisions for the pilot. It helps in third-world areas where pilots aren’t as well-trained. The pilot doesn’t even have the ability to override much of what the computer decides to do... scary!
In this scenario, the computer thought the plane was stalling. Step 1: drop the nose and gain airspeed. The pilot was likely pulling on the stick for his life while the computer simply ignored him and plowed into the ground.
Some said the elevation of the airport may have been a factor, at 7625 ft above sea level................
Computers are too heavily depended on.
The dreaded BSOD
How does one reboot a plane while in flight?
An experienced US military trained pilot would have rolled the aircraft inverted where nose down inputs become nose up. Might have given them more time to troubleshoot or unpower the MCAS. Problem is Boeing didn’t even put this system in the pilot’s aircraft systems Manuel and seems there was no training for spurious inputs that might require disabling it.