Jessi Combs Sudden Death From Fatal Crash Crushes Fans on Social Media

Social media users can’t believe the news that Jessi Combs was killed in a car crash while attempting to break her own land-speed record. Popular Mechanics reports that the 39-year-old was driving her jet-powered land-speed car on Tuesday in the Alvord Desert in Oregon, a dry lake bed where several land-speed records have been set, when the accident occurred around 4 p.m. local time.

Several of Combs’ previous co-workers and co-stars memorialized the TV personality on social media, including Terry Madden, one of her team members.

“I have never loved or been loved by anyone as much as this amazing woman [Jessi] she was truly my unicorn and I enjoyed every single minute that I had with her. She was the most amazing spirit that I have ever or will ever know,” he wrote, in part.

Former Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage wrote that he was “so so sad” to hear the news. “She was a brilliant & [top-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.”

Poison drummer and self-proclaimed “motorcycle nut” Rikki Rockett shared a few photos of himself with Combs and wrote that she was a “hero to both men and women. What a sweetheart you were!!!”

Combs held the title of “fastest woman on four wheels” after setting a record of 398 mph in her jet-powered North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger in 2013. More recently, she piloted that same car to 483.227 mph in a single shakedown run in October 2018, although the run ended prematurely due to mechanical troubles.

Additionally, she was known for appearing in TV shows, including Mythbusters (where she was a host and builder for one season), All Girls Garage, Xtreme 4×4, Overhaulin’, Truck U and Two Guys Garage.

Combs, an automotive world legend, was trained in fabrication and hot-rod building at WyoTech before she made her way to automotive television.