By the way, where was the first officer in all of this? Did he verbally object to the breaking of a law and SOP? Or was he in awe of reputation of said Captain? Remember MD80 at Little Rock, and a domicile chief pilot for AA? If you don't understand the connection, you are not familiar with the CLR issues of a relatively new first officer who missed several opportunities to speak up to the Captain and break the chain of events that led up to that accident, costing the Captain and some others their lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...es_Flight_1420
http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/2000/aa1420/default.htm