Boat flips in air at over 200mph in failed attempt to break speed record

A speedboat going at more than 200mph aiming to break a record launched into the air unexpectedly as the stunt went awry.

Video recorded from Lake Havasu in Nevada showed the 10,000-horsepower Skater 388 blazing the surface leaving a trail of white water, when it suddenly became airborne.

The speedboat made two 360-degree flips before plunging nose first back into the lake and creating a massive splash.

‘Holy f***,’ a person can be heard saying in the background numerous times.

Someone else reacted by saying: ‘S***.’

The terrifying incident happened at the Desert Storm Shootout boating event on Saturday.

Flips in the air ended with the boat ‘fortunately landing upright’, according to Speedboat Magazine.

‘After several tense moments, both driver and throttleman emerged from the closed canopied cockpit, uninjured but are being taken to the hospital for further examination,’ stated the magazine in a Facebook post.

The Freedom One Racing members were ‘OK and not seriously injured’, it reported.

Another clip shared on social media showed a Mohave County Sheriff’s Office vessel with its lights activated approaching the shore, presumably with the rescued boaters on board.

The racers have not revealed their real identities and go by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Both are from Kansas City, Missouri.

A competitor in the shootout, Jeff Clark, called the incident ‘horrendous’.

‘My heart dropped when I saw that boat get airborne,’ he told FOX 10 Phoenix.

‘It’s never something you want to look at when you’re out having fun as a driver for sure.’

Clark credited their survival to the vessel being built to withstand great impacts and not falling apart during the crash.

‘So when they were sitting in that cockpit and when you look at pictures of the boats, it’s totally destroyed but the cockpit is in perfect condition,’ he said.

‘I tip my hat to Skater and the crew that built that boat because it saved that guy’s life, it saved both of their lives, there’s no doubt about it.’

It happened a day before a ferry was struck by a boat by the Memorial Causeway Bridge in Clearwater, Florida, and one person died and several were hurt.

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