@BitFlipper:

Captains just issue orders, and the crew has to follow them no matter how foolish they are, even if they have to override 100 alarms. The captain just says "do a flyby of this island" and the crew has to go and carry out the orders.  What probably happened here is a mate on watch was distracted and missed a turn.  But we won't know for sure until they go over the black boxes.