So where do you draw the line?
What laws can you break just because you believe they are stupid?
Crew duty? go that extra hour to make sure the company doesn't lose any money?
Carry that little bit less fuel so the company doesn't lose any money?
Push that extra 50 foot below minima?
The law/rule/regulation was there.
The company (I don't care what company) made a deliberate decision to disregard it based purely on economics.
Where would you draw the line? Thats why we have rules/regulations/laws. So people can't do what ever they feel like when it suits them, thats how accidents happen.
Some say this wasn't dangerous.
How much pressure where the crew under to get going? the ground crew? How was their crew duty? How much were they thinking about how much trouble was going to happen from that decision instead of thinking about the job at hand?
I can't think of any more blatant disregard of the rule. The company had probably written off the 500K, they must be laughing at HQ only being fined 100K.
You think your company will look after you when it all turns to tears? Ask the Qantas exec in jail in the USA.