LOMCEVAK
Passengers were being carried in contravention of the regulations
To be fair to DB, that regulation wasn't introduced until much later.
The HAA included a 'no passengers' rule in its voluntary code circa 1984, wrongly and unnecessarily in some members' opinion including mine but we abided by it. (I still think an adult should have the freedom to accept the risk, such as the risk is.)
Before that, passengers were almost always restricted to other pilots and the volunteers who gave their time to help keep the aircraft flying. I say almost only because a very small minority, including DB on the day the A-26 crashed, sometimes extended that to others.
The HAA rule was subsequently incorporated in the regs.
The above doesn't in any way detract from the valid point you make.