A Japan Airlines pilot was found not guilty Friday of professional negligence resulting in the eventual death of a cabin attendant and injuries to 13 others aboard a 1997 flight that encountered turbulence.

Ruling on an unprecedented criminal trial targeting a commercial pilot in Japan in connection with an in-flight accident, the Nagoya District Court acquitted 54-year-old Koichi Takamoto, captain of Flight 706 from Hong Kong to Nagoya on June 8, 1997. The MD-11 had 179 passengers and crew members on board.

Presiding Judge Yoji Ishiyama blamed the violent jarring of the aircraft near Nagoya on the captain's abrupt movement of the flight controls but ruled that he could not have foreseen the injuries sustained by some of those on board and that there was no proof of any criminal act on his part.