The instructor pilot involved in the plane crash in Costa da Caparica in August 2017 was acquitted of negligent homicide on Tuesday.

Instructor pilot Carlos Conde de Almeida, the sole defendant in the case, was charged with dangerous operation of an aircraft and two counts of negligent homicide.

The emergency landing of the Cessna 152 light training aircraft carrying the instructor pilot and a student on 2 August 2017 killed an 8-year-old girl and a 56-year-old man on São João da Caparica beach in Almada, Setúbal district.

The court panel found that it was not proven in the trial that the sole defendant in the case failed to follow the emergency procedures he was required to, despite the deaths of two innocent people.

"The court played 'devil's advocate', questioning several examiner and instructor pilots about what could have been done differently, but nothing was proven in that regard," said Judge Céline Borges after reading the verdict.

The magistrate also said that the pilot controlled the aircraft as best he could and that the landing could have had more serious consequences if he had not done so.

The court also found that the defendant, as soon as the engine failure was detected, realised that he would not be able to return to Cascais airfield (in Lisbon district) or land on Cova do Vapor beach (also on Costa da Caparica), where there would have been far fewer people, and that a water landing was not an option, so he was forced to make an emergency landing on the sands of São João da Caparica.

In closing arguments on 7 March, Carlos Conde de Almeida's defence requested an acquittal, but the Public Prosecution Service (MP) argued that the defendant should be convicted, stating that he exchanged the dangers to the two occupants of the aircraft -- instructor and student -- of landing elsewhere or making a water landing for the "certain death of others" on a beach with hundreds of people.

According to the MP's arguments, the pilot should have chosen the emergency landing site as soon as the failure occurred, but only did so too late, having wasted time in successive attempts to restart the aircraft's engine.

Lawyer Bárbara Marinho Pinto, representing the family of the girl who died after being hit by the aircraft, requested a "prison sentence", but admitted that it could be replaced by a "flying ban".

After Carlos Conde de Almeida's acquittal, Bárbara Marinho Pinto said that she had expected a different decision from the court, but does not yet know whether she will appeal.

"Obviously, this was not our expectation. The trial is public, you can hear my arguments and understand my disagreement with this decision," she said.

"There are numerous aspects that I believe were incorrectly judged. The defendant admitted that he spent 50 seconds trying to restart the engine -- it is public knowledge, the evidence is recorded -- but the court did not accept this as proven. And that surprises me. I have to read the decision, analyse it and consider what to do, because, as you can understand, this is very wearing for my clients," added Bárbara Marinho Pinto.

The instructor pilot's lawyer, Luís Pires de Lima, expressed the opposite opinion, stating that justice had been done.

"Justice was done. It was found that the defendant followed the procedures, did what he could. One thing is certain: the aircraft in the air had to come down. The pilot tried to avoid this outcome as much as possible, which is regrettable, but, as stated in the ruling, it could have been worse if it had not been a controlled descent, which it was," he said.

[News updated at 17:59]

Read Also: Pilot charged with homicide after emergency landing in Caparica hears sentence (Portuguese version)