The Court of Appeal held that the Crown's failure to prove that the alternative course of action (flying into a sand dune) posed a materially lower danger than the sharp turn made by the appellant constituted a material omission that could realistically have affected the jury's reasoning, amounting to a miscarriage of justice. The Crown must address the defence of extraordinary emergency under s 25 of the Criminal Code (Qld) in the context of the actual physical environment confronting the accused, not merely by reference to training standards in the abstract. The conviction was set aside and a new trial ordered on the basis of the Crown's concession of these errors.
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