New Jersey teen gets smacked in face by seagull while mid-air on amusement park ride

New Jersey teen Kiley Holman had expected to scream while boarding the ‘Slingshot’ at Morey’s Piers and Beachfront Waterpark, as the thrilling attraction launches its passengers into the air at 75 miles an hour — a similar concept to that of a cannon ball.  But the 13-year-old was surprised to scream at something else entirely upon being catapulted into the sky: a sizeable seagull, seemingly wanting to join in on the fun, smacked right into her face just as she took flight.

Holman was accompanied by 14-year-old Georgia Reed, who was celebrating her birthday at the Wildwood, New Jersey theme park that day. The birthday girl admitted she was completely oblivious to her companion’s in-flight reenactment of The Birds at the time, but fortunately, no one — human or feathered — was hurt in the incident. Plus, Holman was able to think fast, miraculously yanking the bird off her face while being flung through the air.

“I knew there was no going back, it was just going to hit me,” Holman said of accepting her ‘seagull-slap’ fate, per Fox News. “I didn’t know what to do, so I wait[ed] for it to spin over and then I just grabbed it and threw it off me quick,” she recalled.

When asked if either teen would be willing to give the Slingshot another go, both vehemently responded with a “hard no.”

And we don’t blame them. While nobody got hurt in this bird face incident, such is not always the case. In 1999, Fabio Lanzoni’s face collided with a goose whilst riding the Apollo’s Chariot rollercoaster at Virginia’s Busch Gardens. This led to quite the bloody aftermath for Fabio and his fellow riders, and even necessitated stitches for the supermodel’s goose-struck nose. Unfortunately, Fabio’s feathered friend (or foe?) did not survive the encounter.

We’re grateful there were no casualties this time around.