They were only doing what they were trained to do.
Out of the box decision making is not trained at KA. All exercises are canned with no time to stop mid-exercise and assess the effect of your decisions or the other possibilities, due to unrealistic time constraints.
Current PC has an off route diversion but again canned exercise as it is an escape route.
Just of interest most of the top brass in training are cadets or airforce and before I get into trouble for that comment, it is good and bad. The guys did nothing wrong just were just not trained to think outside the box.