Relying on the Beeb or newspaper articles for accuarate reports of the court proceedings gives a totally flawed impression of what happened, mainly because the defence does not give regular updates to the press, while the prosecution does.
Wng Cdr Green got trashed over his G-calculations and knowledge of CI. JW got trashed for a lot of what he said and the evidence for previous cavalier or reckless flying turned into nothing. After that the prosecution didn’t have a lot going for it.
As a (non-aviation related) expert witness in the past, I would say they failed to do their research adequately and did not establish key facts before giving evidence and being cross examined. They left the goal open and Mr Khalil just had to tap the ball in.
the public interest argument might have been sting but the chance of a guilty verdict were slender.
caramba