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Colorado - Two elderly gentlemen testing a Dodge Challenger Hellcat at the Central Colorado Regional Airport in Buena Vista were killed after rocketing off the end of a runway and sailing across a ravine.
According to authorities, the men had permission to use the runway and were likely to have reached speeds close to 160km/h.
Hellcat wrecked
The Denver Post reported that the 2016 Challenger Hellcat was driven down the runway on Friday by Lynd Fitzgerald, age 71, of Colorado Springs, with Roger Lichtenberger, 76, in the passenger seat. According to investigators, the car kept moving off the runway for another 95 meters.
The vehicle was said to have gone airborne before hitting the ground. The car bounced back into the air, flipped end over end over a second ravine, and landed on its wheels, the investigators determined.
READ: 'Too many drivers believe they are infallible on the roads' - AA
Chaffee County Sheriff’s deputies, Buena Vista police and Colorado State Patrol troopers rushed to the scene of the incident and tried to give the men first aid. The Denver Post reported that both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
'They went a little too fast...'
Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze was quoted as saying: “They were just test-driving this car. They went a little too fast. I don’t want to surmise. They probably got to the end of the runway and, at that speed, didn’t realize they were there so fast.
"And they lost control. It was just too high a speed and they got to the end of the runway."
