African penguin crashes helicopter?

What happened?

A helicopter surveying Bird Island, Eastern Cape, crashed seconds after takeoff when an unsecured penguin in a cardboard box slipped off a specialist’s lap, bumped the cyclic pitch control (that tells the helicopter which direction to go), and sent the aircraft veering right. The rotor hit the ground, and it crash-landed just 20 meters from its starting point.

• A penguin in a cardboard box caused a helicopter crash in South Africa on January 19, according to authorities.
• The pilot failed to secure the penguin properly, which led to the box sliding onto the cyclic pitch control lever, resulting in a crash.
• The helicopter sustained substantial damage, but no one aboard, including the penguin, was harmed during the incident.
• Authorities concluded that the lack of secure containment for the penguin created a dangerous situation during the flight.

Some takeaways:

• The crash wasn’t the penguin’s fault. It was a human error—failing to properly secure the box holding the African penguin.
• It certainly wasn’t revenge for Trump’s penguin tarriffs because the helicopter accident occurred three months before Trump decided to include a group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, and home to King penguins, in his trade war.
• The helicopter didn’t “plummet” in a “terrifying” crash. The helicopter was 15m off the ground and crashed on its side about 20m from where it lifted off.

We’d like to nominate two suggested non-clickbait, non-penguin blaming headlines:

Bird Island Helicopter Crash: A Slip, A Bump, and Human Error

Aerial Survey Cut Short After Penguin Box Mishap Sends Helicopter Crashing