Helicopter crashes when wrong control lever is pushed — by a penguin

A helicopter crashed in South Africa when the wrong control lever was pushed — not by the pilot, but by a penguin sitting right next to him.

The "unsecured" penguin was sitting in a cardboard box, which was on the lap of a passenger sitting next to the pilot. But when the helicopter took off, the box slid away from the passenger, hitting random helicopter controls, according to a report by the South African Civil Aviation Authority, via The Independent.

"The pilot conducted a risk assessment of the flight; however, he omitted to include the carriage (transportation) of the penguin on-board," said the report.

The incident took place on Bird Island off the Eastern Cape on 19 January, according to the official report.

A pilot and three passengers on board along with the penguin were conducting an aerial survey flight in the afternoon and the specialist on board asked to transport one of the penguins back to Port Elizabeth.

"Whilst transitioning and about 15m above ground level (AGL), the cardboard box slid off to the right and on to the pilot's cyclic pitch control lever.

"As a result, the cyclic pitch control lever advanced to the far-right position. The helicopter rolled to the right and the pilot could not recover timeously." …

It added that the pilot "omitted to state in the risk assessment form the intention to transport the penguin in a cardboard box on-board".

— The Independent

Oops.

Previously: Runaway penguin home after 18-mile ocean adventure