diff --git a/src/uu/cp/src/cp.rs b/src/uu/cp/src/cp.rs
index cda57ed0fb0..de23a619596 100644
--- a/src/uu/cp/src/cp.rs
+++ b/src/uu/cp/src/cp.rs
@@ -2386,7 +2386,7 @@ fn handle_copy_mode(
                 .truncate(false)
                 .create(true)
                 .open(dest)
-                .unwrap();
+                .map_err(|e| CpError::IoErrContext(e, context.to_owned()))?;
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs b/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs
index 1b3fde67814..f3c0fbd195b 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_cp.rs
@@ -4412,6 +4412,16 @@ fn test_cp_attributes_only() {
     assert_eq!(mode_b, at.metadata(b).mode());
 }
 
+#[test]
+#[cfg(unix)]
+fn test_cp_attributes_only_dest_open_error() {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.write("s.txt", "hi");
+    ucmd.args(&["--attributes-only", "s.txt", "/dev/null/n.txt"])
+        .fails_with_code(1)
+        .stderr_contains("cp: 's.txt' -> '/dev/null/n.txt'");
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_cp_seen_file() {
     let ts = TestScenario::new(util_name!());