CINCINNATI — Hundreds of spectators lined the river fronts and bridges to catch a glimpse of the Red Bull Flugtag on Saturday.
Roughly 40 teams took a leap of faith to try and fly over the Ohio River in their homemade flying devices.
The teams of five people, including Cincy 'Til I Fly, Weenie Hut Jr. and The Neanderthals and more, created flying machines over the last several months to be launched off an elevated 22-foot-high flight deck while being piloted by one person. Competitors were judged on three different criteria: flight distance, creativity and showmanship.
Former Cincinnati Bengal Chad Johnson, Olympic Skier and Indiana native Nick Goepper, Cincy drag queen and entertainer Jessica Dimon, TikTok-er Cale Saurage and media personality Chloe Pavlech served as the judges.
Ohio Surf Squad, which is a group based in Cleveland that builds surf culture in their community, received a perfect score with their silver glider.
Another team, The Flying Tigers, flew into the river on an orange glider decked out in tiger stripes, and the team wore tiger costumes. The glider itself was also signed by Ochocinco.
Team Top Gums, an all-woman team from Middletown, created the Betty White Bomber, a plane-shaped creation featuring homages to Betty White herself.
"Listen, we love the movie Top Gun and we're all Golden Girl fans — who isn't a Golden Girls fan — so it's Top Gums, the Betty White Bomber," said one team member.
The judges awarded first, second and third place awards after all the teams attempted flight.
First place went to Flite Test from Minerva, Ohio, second place went to Living Lost Land and Waters from East Moline, Illinois and third place went to The Neanderthals from Phoenix, Arizona.
Other awards, the People's Choice and the Longest Flight, were also given out.
The contest's Longest Flight Award, which was presented by CVG Airport, was awarded to The Smoke Eaters. The team's glider flew 54 feet.
And the Flugtag Longest Flight Award, presented by CVG, goes to….The Smoke Eaters! ✈️
— CVG Airport (@CVGairport) August 12, 2023
Thank you to everyone that came out to see us at @redbull Flugtag today! pic.twitter.com/tEWUmjOViX
Maybe the most coveted award of the day, the People's Choice Award, was given to Cincinnati's own Thunderdome team.
Chris Seelbach, the former president of Cincinnati City Council, was part of the PFLAG team, which he said on social media Saturday was the only team disqualified from the event.
Couldn’t be more proud of this PFLAG team and couldn’t be more disappointed with @redbull Flugtag Cincinnati.
— Chris Seelbach (he/him) (@ChrisSeelbach) August 12, 2023
PFLAG local, led by Kat Steiner, worked for months getting designs approved. Over and over again.
Red Bull approved our craft every single step of the way. pic.twitter.com/XYP6sjiMRl
Seelbach tweeted that Red Bull organizers wouldn't let the team fly their craft because of "environmental reasons," despite previously approving the craft's design.
And we were all the way up the ramp to go….when…
— Chris Seelbach (he/him) (@ChrisSeelbach) August 12, 2023
The Red Bull organizers told us they wouldn’t let our craft fly and to turn around because of “environmental concerns.”
Again. They approved every single inch of the design and execution. Many times over.
An event spokesperson confirmed PFLAG's glider was disqualified.
"The craft in question had a structural failure en route to the flight deck. As a result, the craft was unable to participate due to safety and environmental concerns," the spokesperson said.
Red Bull's Flugtag event kicked off in 1992 has been happening in the U.S. since 2002 when it was held in San Francisco. Since then, the high-flying event has been held in Austin, Chicago, Miami, Louisville, Philadelphia and more, as well as more than 50 countries internationally.
If you weren't able to catch the 2023 Red Bull Flugtag live in Cincinnati. ESPN2 will be airing it on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 6-7 p.m.
