Regrettably, the crew do not appear to have been aware of the breach.
On the contrary, rather than say the crew were probably unaware of breaking the rules, I would hazard a guess that in this case and the majority of accidents similar to what we have read here, crews were well aware they were pressing on, regardless of breaking established safety norms. Often it is ethnic culture and/or just plain cowboy flying which they have successfully got away with on previous occasions.