The Mystery Around Fabio’s Rollercoaster Goose Encounter Will Never Be Solved

Rollercoaster rides are fun, but not for Fabio. For the younger generation, Fabio Lanzoni is an Italian-born model who was on the face of almost every romance novel printed out in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. He had a Greek god body, blue eyes and hair for days, and he was, at one point, so incredibly famous that he joined the very select list of one-name celebrities, alongside Madonna, Cher, Beyonce, and Prince.

Fabio’s career derailed on the exact date of March 30, 1999, when he got on the inaugural ride of the brand new Bolliger & Mabillard hypercoaster Apollo, at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. A hypercoaster is like a more badass rollercoaster, in that it soars higher, taking passengers above 200 feet (61 meters) above the ground before it drops them. Since the ride was named Apollo and Fabio looked exactly like a Greek god and he was at the height of his fame, this was considered prime PR move: the theme park got him as spokesperson for the big opening of their first ride of the kind.

The press was at the scene and, as you can see in the video below, there was a camera strapped to the train, facing Fabio and a bunch of girls in thematic Greek garb. However, footage from that camera was never retrieved and, according to a new interview with People Magazine, it never will. “The camera is never to be found. The tape disappeared. It never was found,” Fabio says.

The world will never know what happened on that historic rollercoaster ride, when a goose died after a reported collision with Fabio’s face and his career never recovered. The first round of stories regarding the incident started as soon as the train pulled in after the inaugural run: Fabio’s famous face was covered in blood, and there was spatter on the girls behind him as well. The hairdo was still intact, thank heavens; the blood was seemingly from a nose injury of some sort.

Apparently, at the first drop, with the train going at 73 mph (117.5 mph), a 10-pound (4.5-kg) goose flew right into Fabio’s face, and its indifference to it being Fabio’s money-maker was duly punished by instant death. Urban legend has it that the poor bird’s body was found the next day.

For years, Fabio would tell reporters that, indeed, he took a goose to the face on that ride, and that it nearly killed him. In 2018, he changed stories, saying he saw the goose but it never made contact with his face. Instead, he said, it hit the camera attached to the train, and debris flew from it and cut him on the nose. The cut itself required only three stitches, so it wasn’t that bad: the abundance of blood when the train pulled in was due to the fact that the collision happened at the onset of the ride.

Still, Fabio went on the TV circuit to argue that the ride was a danger because that first drop went over a pond, where hundreds of geese gathered. This was an accident alright, but it could happen anytime, to anyone else. It never did, by the way. The Fabio accident was the only time anyone has ever seen a goose while on the ride.

It’s 2021 now and Fabio is back in the headlines. Younger generations will probably not know his name, but his old fans must be happy to know that the 62-year-old holds no grudge against the theme park for that ill-fated ride. He says he never sued the theme park because showing up was part of his job. Also part of the job was the chance that something might go wrong.

However, the story has changed a bit again. The train was going 80-85 mph (129-137 kph) when it dropped and flew over the pond, and one of the hundreds of geese there “got sucked in.” It hit the camera and it “shattered,” sending debris towards the passengers on the train. Since he was in the first row, he was hit on the nose, but only because he saw what was happening and was able to turn his head to the side in time. The injury only required one stitch but, still, it was a “miracle” nothing worse happened.

Clearly, one of the most talked-about rollercoaster incidents ever will never cease to be a mystery, and that’s because Fabio keeps changing the story. One thing remains certain, though: rollercoaster rides are fun. But not for Fabio. Or geese.