Jessi Combs death mystery as cops seize on board laptops to work out whether car fire started BEFORE deadly crash
COPS have seized the on board computers from Jessi Combs’ jet car which crashed during her ill-fated women’s land speed record attempt. The ‘fastest woman on four wheels’ died after losing control of the horrendously powerful vehicle on a dry bed lake in Alvord Desert in Oregon, US, on Tuesday. Police are now probing what […]
COPS have seized the on board computers from Jessi Combs’ jet car which crashed during her ill-fated women’s land speed record attempt.
The ‘fastest woman on four wheels’ died after losing control of the horrendously powerful vehicle on a dry bed lake in Alvord Desert in Oregon, US, on Tuesday.
Police are now probing what caused her 56ft-long, 52,000-horsepower “jet car” – dubbed the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger – to crash.
The New York Post reported that investigators are trying to recover laptops from the vehicle — so they can establish whether the on board fire started before or after the crash.
“They’re waiting for the team to recover the [engine and systems] information stored on the inboard computers,” said Lt. Brian Needham of the Harney County Sheriff’s Office.
He said “there was a fire involved” but was unable to say whether Combs’ car hit something to cause the blaze.
Jessi was trying to break the women’s land speed record of 512 mph (823 kph) set in 1976 by Kitty O’Neil when she died.
In one of her last social media posts, the former Mythbusters star even hinted she was trying to smash the record by more than 100mph.
“It may seem a little crazy to walk directly into the line of fire,” she captioned a shot of her walking towards her jet-engine propelled car.
#throwbackthursday #landspeed attempting to become #fastestwomanonearth with @landspeed763 #northamericaneagle #prayforhealing #fasterthanfast“Those who are willing, are those who achieve great things. People say I’m crazy. I say thank you.”
She then included a number of hashtags including “fastest woman on earth”, “gottabreak512”, “aimingfor619” and “currentlyat483”.
The TV personality had set her own land-speed record in a four-wheeled vehicle when she hit 398 mph in 2013.
She went on to shatter that mark, topping 483 mph in subsequent follow-up runs, though those efforts were not considered official because of mechanical issues, Autoblog reported.
In the weeks before her death, Jessi had seemed excited about the prospect of setting a new record.
“Sometimes I just gotta push the noise out, turn my head, and get to work,” she captioned one Instagram image.
“Big things happening…hopefully super-fast things.”
In a statement, Jessi’s family said her “most notable dream was being the fastest woman on Earth.”
Tributes poured in from her friends from the smash hit Discovery Channel show after the sad news.
“So sad to hear about Jessi. She was a badass. Always pushing limits. Sending smiles into the universe for her,” tweeted Mythbusters star Kari Byron, who Jessi filled in for while she was on maternity leave.
Show host Adam Savage also shared his grief on Twitter, writing: “I’m so so sad, Jessi Combs has been killed in a crash.
“She was a brilliant & too-notch builder, engineer, driver, fabricator, and science communicator, & strove everyday to encourage others by her prodigious example. She was also a colleague, and we are lesser for her absence.”
“My heart goes out to her family,” he added in another tweet.
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“So sorry to hear about Jessi,” wrote former Mythbuster star Grant Imahara on Twitter. “She was a talented builder and host, and above all, a go-getter.”
Tory Belleci shared two photos with Combs from her time on the show – including a black-and-white shot of the pair sharing a high-five.
“Absolutely gutted to hear the news of @thejessicombs You’re a legend Jessi and I will miss you my friend,” he said in the caption.
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