Everyone was ok:

The aircraft sustained substantial damage but the pilot and passengers were uninjured, according to the incident report. The penguin was also unharmed, the report noted.

How it happened:

The pilot and passengers were conducting an aerial survey flight of an island off South Africa’s Eastern Cape on January 19, 2025. The helicopter safely landed on Bird Island. Before departing, one of the passengers, who the incident report referred to as a “specialist,” asked that they transport one of the penguins on the island back with them. The pilot agreed, and the penguin was placed in a cardboard box.

When the helicopter was at an altitude of around 50 feet, the cardboard box slid off the passenger’s lap – onto the pilot’s cyclic pitch control lever, the incident report said. The helicopter rolled to the right. The pilot could not recover, the incident report said. As the aircraft descended, the main rotor blades of the helicopter struck the ground, and the helicopter landed on its side, about 60 feet from where it had taken off.