Yep. Not incorrect.
We’ve talked about flying penguins before. This guy wanted to try it, but the protagonist in our story here went high enough, and decided to promptly return right back down to earth, where penguins belong.
An “unsecured” penguin in a cardboard box was the cause of a helicopter crash in South Africa, a report into the incident has found.
The penguin, which had been placed in the box and on the lap of a passenger, slid off and knocked the pilot’s controls just after take-off from Bird Island off the Eastern Cape on 19 January.
Thankfully, no-one – including the penguin – was injured.
According to the report, released this week, the flight had been conducting an aerial survey of the island in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape province.
After completing the survey, the helicopter landed, where a specialist then requested the transport of one penguin back to Port Elizabeth.
The report did not say why they had picked up the penguin.
This is perfectly reasonable. No-one needs to know why you p-p-p-p-pick up a penguin. You might want a nice chocolate biscuit with your morning coffee. You might be involved in some shady penguin kidnapping scheme. That’s your business. We don’t need to know. We wouldn’t even know now if it weren’t for the damn bird crashing the aircraft.
All we need to make sure of is that now hat you’ve decided to pick up the penguin, you must complete a “risk assessment” and include the transport of the penguin on board.
The aviation authority said the pilot conducted a “risk assessment” but omitted to include the transport of the penguin on board which “was not in accordance with the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) 2011”.
Oh.
Oh dear.
The report said all situations should be subject to “established safety protocols” and compliance with aviation safety procedures.
I’m not 100% au fait with how many of those “established safety protocols” and aviation safety procedures specifically mention the transportation of penguins, but reasonably, you’ve got to guess that it’s probably very few.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and we should be happy that there were no casualties on this occasion.
But as always, there are lessons to be learned here, and next time you are transporting a penguin in a helicopter, I trust that you will remember this blog post, and be well aware of the inherent dangers of such an endeavour.