The TV presenter died trying to break the 824km/h land-speed record.
Tributes have begun to flow in for former MythBusters co-presenter Jessi Combs, who died while attempting to break a land-speed record in the US.
The 39-year-old was hoping to become the world’s fastest woman in the Alvord Desert in the western state of Oregon, by reaching speeds of 824km/h - however it ended in tragedy.
Details of the crash were not revealed, but Combs’ family confirmed the news in a statement.
“Jessi’s most notable dream was to become the fastest woman on Earth, a dream she had been chasing since 2012,” it read.
“Combs was one of the rare dreamers with the bravery to turn those possibilities into reality, and she left this earth driving faster than any other woman in history.”
Combs appeared in twelve episodes of the seventh season of MythBusters, the popular science based program on the Discovery Channel.
She was picked to help host the show while one co-host Kari Byron was on maternity leave.
Paying tribute, another Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage said he was saddened by the news and that Combs encouraged others “by her prodigious example”.
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.
— Adam Savage (@donttrythis) August 28, 2019
Byron tweeted her sadness at the news, saying Combs was someone who was “always pushing limits”.
Combs, nicknamed ‘The Fastest Woman on Four Wheels’, had documented her attempt to beat the 824km/h women’s land-speed record, set by American Kitty O’Neil in 1976.
Just last week Combs tweeted:
“It may seem a little crazy to walk directly into the line of fire,” she said.
“Those who are willing, are those who achieve great things. People say I’m crazy. I say thank you.”
