I've worked lots of places where working late meant overtime pay, which was against policy and therefore led to battles, "administrative penalties" like getting lousy shifts, and occasionally even labour board intervention. So yeah, it's not unreasonable to think that someone might push the problem on to someone else.

I don't know much about airline regulations, but I would hope that there are also limits on hours based on safety regulations. In that case, the entire flight might get cancelled when someone exceeds allowable hours. Now imagine the pressure the employer applies to the employees in that circumstance. And the outcry from the passengers booked on said cancelled flight.