Surveillance video captured the moment a seagull flew into a teenage girl’s face as she rode a high-powered boardwalk amusement in Wildwood, New Jersey, earlier this month.
What are the details?
According to WTXF-TV, 13-year-old Kiley Holman and her friend, 14-year-old Georgia Reed, were celebrating Georgia’s birthday on July 6 and decided to ride the Springshot at Morey’s Piers.
The daring ride, according to the station, is said to hit speeds of 75 mph as it launches pairs of thrill-seekers into the sky.
The girls can be seen in the early moments of the video mentally preparing for launch when they are abruptly shot like a rocket into the air.
Both immediately begin screaming, but a stunned-looking Kiley’s screams are cutoff by a third passenger: a dazed seagull that makes clear contact with the 13-year-old’s face.
Georgia — who is apparently unaware that her friend is attempting to wrest a bird from her face — can be seen screaming while on the ride, but Kiley is clearly too stunned at this point to make a noise.
Momentarily breaking out of her horror, Kiley is able to snatch the bird from her face and toss it to the side.
“I knew there was no going back, and it was just going to hit me,” Kiley recalled of the moment the bird crashed into her face. “I didn’t know what to do, so I waited for it to spin over. I just grabbed it and threw it off me quick.”
Neither of the girls were injured in the incident.
Georgia’s mother, Arena, told the Daily Mail that she witnessed something falling from the ride car, but believed it to be some sort of ticket.
“I saw the wings fall out of the car, but at first I thought it was a ticket,” Arena recalled.
As for Kiley and Georgia, both said they have no plans to ride the Springshot ever again and could hardly contain their laughter when they were off the ride and reliving the bizarre moment on the ground.