Folks Of Interest Rest in Peace, Jessi...

Valerie Thompson crashed in Australia last year at 343 mph in a motorcycle and walked away. I guess it depends on design,luck and a lot of other crash factors.

 

Safety is one of the main reasons for sanctioning bodies. That and organizing and keeping records. SCTA-BNI safety regulations were paid for in blood and lives.

 

c'mon let's be serious.
People have walked away from numerous 300+ and 400+ crackups to race again.
Leaving off a safety cage for "maybe later" isn't much different from leaving your helmet sitting on the toolbox.
"an exploding engine part might go right through my helmet"
Do you prefer your survivability chances to be at 3% or at 70% ?
Actually I think it's much higher than 70% if it can pass tech inspection, but you get the point.

WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

I posted earlier in this thread that it appeared the seat in the car was still the original equipment ejection seat that came in the F-104...
I don't know a lot about LSR or fighter jets, or fighter jets flying at zero feet of altitude...
But I do have a couple of questions...
Could you "punch out" at 400mph along the ground?
would the seat launch you high enough for the chute to deploy and soften the landing?
Is the ejection seat a mechanical only trigger or could it deploy automatically if certain sensors detect certain conditions?

I guess I am just wracking my brain to figure out why there was no cage... only thing I can come up with is that there was an ejection seat and a cage would prevent it from being used...
I am not suggesting that an ejection seat would be (or could be) a preferred method of safety in this application...
Just trying to find some logic in all of this.

I just find it really hard to believe that there was no thought given to driver safety by any of the engineers, fabricators, experienced LSR racers, Et. al. involved with this project...

I mean there is a model to follow, they were not the first group to strap a jet engine to a "car" for the sole purpose of setting a LSR.....

Most racers I know, or have read about or studied all have some sort of a "safety matrix".
Niki Lauda had a simple philosophy: “I accept every time I get in my car there’s a 20 percent chance I could die.” Later he clarified that this was not meant as a statistical calculation, but a general statement.
I would think that all racers have some sort of similar mental calculation they go through... and the lack of a cage at those speeds, with that car, would have to put that number well over 80% (in my mind)… so what was the mitigating factor(s) that would bring that number back down to some acceptable enough percentage that you would actually get in the car and give it the beans?
She was a driver and fabricator, she had to know what the car could do, both good and bad...
I just can't get my head around it.....
Chappy.

 

The car in this picture blew a tire at 427 mph. The driver not only walked away, but got out and switched off the electrics. After helping clean up. he drove himself to Salt Lake for a scan to be sure nothing happened. Nothing happened, He did say that the tight cage and Hans Device saved his life. Bob is also getting tired of that picture. The NAE group were offered tubing bent to their spec for a cage. They didn't want it. They knew what they were doing and did it. We don't know at this time if a cage would have helped or not.

 

While not being a trained fighter pilot that goes thru "Punch out drills" in simulation, so it becomes second nature. too much going on with limited time and panic took over-- makes you also think if there was any audio/radio with the crew

 

A cage is just bent tubing without any structure around it

 

I don't know. But knowing the guy who made the offer, I would guess the offer was for enough tubing to encapsulate the driver. I don't know if there is a bulkhead behind the seat strong enough to attach a cage to.

 

The ejection seat idea would be a very bad one. If the car was completely upright at the time of ejection, you might get enough altitude for a good chute opening. If the car was tilted at even a slight angle, you probably would not get enough altitude for good chute opening. If the car was on its side, the driver would be ejected to skitter unprotected across the lake bed at 400mph. If the car was upside down, the driver would be launched straight into the ground. Bad all the way around.

 

Guess we really need to see the accident report-if there is one.

 

It goes without saying that converting a 60 year old jet in to a land speed racer and running it on a unsanctioned area without sanctioned safety equipment was not the best idea anyone has ever had. But instead of debating it or finding fault in typical HAMB fashion . Lets just remember her as a talented young women who sadly follower her dreams with more kahunas than most of us have put together and it cost her everything and a young man, parents and family have loss the love of their life's ! Larry

 

I can’t like this post enough....Amen brother.


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Lets add "Blindly" Too many real experts (300 mph and above record holders) expressed serious concerns beforehand

 

Some footage and pics....

https://www.tmz.com/2019/09/04/jessi-combs-dead-died-jet-car-video-crash-photos-land-speed-record/

 

Did the car catch fire? It looks burned. Or is it just a very bad case of road rash?

 

It has been reported by several news outlets that there was a fire after the crash.

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Well, just, crap. I don't know how you survive that. But,it seems to me, there are three questions to ask if you are building a speed car-how do you go,how do you stop and what can you do if something goes wrong? Well, they got one, maybe one and a half. Being right about them being wrong doesn't bring her back.
Staying alive involves being careful and being lucky. Sadly, on this day, Jesse was neither. Damn shame.

 

She "was neither"....oh....so you know what caused the crash....it wasn't a mechanical failure of some kind that she had no part of....Im sure the accident investigation board would like to hear from you.

 

Too soon.
Godspeed Jessi...


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I gotta agree. This vehicle seriously safety flawed for not having a safety cage or cacoon like Indy and f1 cars let alone fire systems. And, the f104 let alone most other jet bodies are not built for such catastrophic impacts. Someone was seriously asleep at the wheel.

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Arm chair Quarterbacks, let's wait for the findings of the investigators. Bad enough what family and friends going through. Let alone maybe reading posts on the internet!

 

What ever hope I had left for humanity I just lost reading the comments on that page .

 

Yeah, it's pretty Fuckin' Disgusting!

 

What the hell is wrong with people. Reading some of the comments absolutely sickened me.

Mick

 

Really? Well, she certainly was not lucky and I personally don't consider it careful to try to go 400 mph without (apparent) safety precautions. The cause of the crash really doesn't matter. Was it her fault-doesn't matter. Was it mechanical, act of God, weather, debris-doesn't matter. Just sad

 

I read the first few, and decided I didn't need to read any more.

 

Lot of dumbass comments here. There are lessons to be learned from any crash. To say nobody should comment on why things went wrong is a low form of ignorant. This speed attempt should never have happened. There is a long trail of progress, written in the blood of daredevils. In my opinion, the lesson here is that there needs to be scantioning body safety rules applied to any attempt, or the record is invalid. Jessi Combs had a potential long career ahead of her. Corners were cut. She paid for them.

 

I think the reason why people are postulating about the cause is that they/we are so disappointed with such a terrible waste of life and talent.

 

It's TMZ. Exactly what you would expect.

 

I'm very sorry this happened. What sticks in my mind was a passage from the 1973 fiction book "Stand on it", where a speed attempt was made at the salt flats. There was an accident and there was nothing remaining of anything.
I also think about Ashley Force. who has had some wrath-of-god drag racing accidents, not of her doing, and survived them all.
We always want to believe the drivers will understand whats happening and take the nessessary steps to avoid catastrophe.
I do want a complete investagation. Let the results be a guide for those who follow this path.