Although the judge noted that the laws clearly conflict, and called upon the Dutch government to resolve this situation, I suspect that this rather low-level judge was simply not legally able to weigh one law against another. The public prosecutor was basically able to prove that the wildlife was disturbed in the legal sense of the wildlife act, so the judge at this level had no other way than to find the defendants guilty. That they were conforming to all aviation laws and customs at the time was not deemed a valid defence.
BackPacker
Surely the Captain of an aircraft has the ultimate descision to override any law in his duties of maintaining the safety of his aircraft.
To have pulled his aircraft up into CAS would have caused a collision threat if he had tried to avoid the birds.
His descision not to avoid the birds by not entering CAS would within his rights overule the bird protection laws?
Pace