Officials may soon know the answers to the questions surrounding the crash that killed racer Jessi Combs.
According to the Harney County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation team was able to recover the on-board computers from inside the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger.
We’re told officials are still trying to recover the data from the computers, which will hopefully give insight into the final moments before 36-year-old Combs’ crash.
As we reported, sources familiar with the investigation tell us Combs was unable to slow down the 52,000-horsepower, 56-foot-long vehicle after she completed her run across the dry lakebed of the Alvord Desert, and she ended up traveling beyond the designated safety area.
Hopefully data recovered from the on-board computers will provide investigators with the information they need to determine if the crash was caused by either driver or mechanical error, like if Combs tried to engage the braking system and the vehicle did not respond.
Our sources familiar with the situation tell us the wreck was equivalant to the force of an “airplane crash,” especially due to the vehicle being customized from an F-104 jet.
We’re told another issue that will be brought up regarding the crash was a lack of a roll cage in the vehicle, which could have served as another safety measure for Combs during a violent crash.
Jessi Combs was attempting to beat her land speed record during the deadly crash, which she set years before in the same Oregon desert.
“The Fastest Woman On Four Wheels” has received an outpouring of support since her tragic death, including her former co-star from “Mythbusters,” Adam Savage.
Savage expressed his devastation 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.”
