Simply as a pax ...
In this day and age no carrier can be seen to allow such behaviour. If the two had not been promptly fired, TAM would have been under a deluge of public media and YouTube attacks. Do you remember:
United Breaks Guitars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ? How much worse was it to put all the pax lives in danger?
Danger? Yes, because I often read in here how rapidly a situation can develop and then deteriorate. How easily can a level bust occur? etc.
I am buying a ticket on the presumption that, if one of the crew is out of their seat, then the other HAS a quiet space and full situational awareness. My guess is that TAM flight deck was in party mode and glances at the displays might not show up a slow change in one of the systems.
They might have had full SA and control, the occupant of the FO seat might have had their headset fully clamped over their ears and concentrating on the cruise - or not.
But as a pax, if that was allowed to pass, it would have been a
PR disaster at the very least. You would not see me on a carrier that allowed such things to happen. United found that their belated actions could not redress the system and that guitar video from 2009 and is still available.
I agree with LindbergB767. Whatever happened 30 years ago was in another era. If does not matter if you liked it the way it was or not. It is now different.