Have to say, I'm not overly qualified to comment still being about 3 weeks from my very own CPL, but I'd be interested to see CX's criteria for performing fly-bys, perhaps this captain thought he was well qualified to perform such a stunt (not a big fan of that word) being the chief pilot of the fleet, thus, I would have suspected, the person who would usually provide authorisation of such displays anyway?
Anyone care to shed light on who their company demands authorisation from for such flying?
Then again, if it was defined in SOPs that he needed further approval, he did rather leave himself open to a fairly hard clamp down...still, one hell of a way to go, you have to say!