A 71-year-old driver and his 76-year-old passenger are dead after a 2016 Dodge Challenger Hellcat they were in ran off a runway and careened over a ravine at the Central Colorado Regional Airport on Sunday. Authorities said the two, who had been given permission to drive on the runway, weren’t breaking any laws.
The dead were identified as Lynd Fitzgerald, the driver, and Roger Lichtenberger, his passenger, according to The Denver Post.
There were skid marks near the end of the runway, suggesting the car tried to stop; investigators think the Hellcat was traveling over 100 mph. The car ended up hundreds of feet beyond where the runway ended.
From The Denver Post:
[The Hellcat] kept moving off the runway for another 314 feet, sheriff’s investigators found.
Then it went through the air over a ravine before hitting the ground. The car bounced back into the air again, flipped end over end over a second ravine, and landed on its wheels, the investigators determined.
Chaffee County Sheriff’s deputies, Buena Vista police and Colorado State Patrol troopers raced to the scene. They found the wrecked car 650 feet beyond the south end of the runway. They tried to give the men first aid.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
The airport’s about two hours southwest of Denver, and has an 8,300-foot runway, according to its website.