Speedboat flips through the air in boating competition in Arizona
UPDATE (12:29 PM): Two people who were at the Desert Storm Shooting Boating event in Lake Havasu over the weekend are sharing what happened.
"We saw the race team proceed down the course, and they started out really well. I mean, nothing out of the ordinary. And then it was about halfway, three-quarters way down the course when we saw the nose start to lift," said Ray Lee, owner and publisher of Speedboat Magazine.
"It actually did a complete flip and then a complete 360 and then came in backwards and upside down," said Ryan Olah, a boat tech for the Freedom One Racing team based out of Kansas City, Missouri.
The video of the wild boat crash from over the weekend is getting a lot of buzz on social media.
"We built this boat to be a record breaker pretty much everywhere we go," Olah spoke.
The team was at Desert Storm Shootout, a boat race where teams fly through the water one at a time to see who can go the fastest.
"And it's as fast as you can go in that 3/4 of a mile, and they have radar guns kind of throughout there and one at the end. So you're literally just racing against yourself," Olah shared.
Olah says towards the end of the race, when the boat was going faster than 200 miles per hour, he believes it caught a decent gust of wind.
Lee was broadcasting the incident though a livestream saying, "As soon as the boat took off, lifted into the air, there was audible gasps and then, you know we just kind of held our breath and hoped for the for the best."
Luckily, both drivers in the boat were able to get themselves out with just a few broken bones and bruises.
"Today, they've been you know in great spirits joking around you know, a little bit sore and banged up, but for the most part. I mean, they're happy. The boat can be fixed. It's all just parts and a little bit of time, so we were just glad that nobody had any major injuries," Olah said.
Freedom One Racing also has a big focus on charity, raising money for local charities and organizations in the cities where they compete.
In a social media post Sunday, the team said it donated nearly $20,000 following the Desert Storm Shootout event.
LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (CNN, KYMA/KECY) - Footage captured shows a powerboat flipping through the air several times before it splashed down in western Arizona during a boating competition.
This happened on Saturday in Lake Havasu City as the powerboat was trying to set a speed record.
The boat was travelling about 210 miles an hour before it went airborne and somersaulted before landing in the water.
Two people on the boat were hurt. They each broke some bones, and were taken to a hospital for treatment. The boaters are expected to make a full recovery.
The annual competition helps raise funds for charitable organizations.
