The pilot and three passengers aboard the helicopter, as well as the penguin, were uninjured, according to an incident report.

An “unsecured” penguin caused a helicopter to crash in South Africa after it leapt out of a cardboard box onto another passenger’s lap, then jumped onto the controls during take-off. The bird was resting in a box on the passenger’s lap after being picked up for transportation during an aerial survey of Bird Island,

A penguin in a cardboard box contributed to the crash of a helicopter in South Africa in January, a recently published government report says.