104-year-old woman dies days after attempting world record for oldest skydiver

A 104-year-old Chicago woman died on Monday morning just days after leaping out of an airplane and breaking the world record for the oldest skydiver.

Centenarian daredevil Dorothy Hoffner lived an “exciting, well-lived life,” a spokesperson for Skydive Chicago & U.S. Parachute Association, who shared the news of her death with the Chicago Sun-Times, said in a statement.

Hoffner became the oldest person to jump out of an airplane with a parachute on Oct. 1, when she safely landed a 13,500-foot tandem jump at Skydive Chicago Airport in Ottawa, Illinois outside of Chicago.

“Age is just a number,” Hoffner told the crowd after her record-setting seven-minute jump.

She broke the previous record set in 2022 by 103-year-old Swedish woman Linnéa Ingegärd. Skydive Chicago is working with Guinness to make it official.

Hoffner was no novice, having made her first skydive years ago at age 100 when she needed a light push to get her out of the plane.

“Skydiving is an activity that many of us safely tuck away in our bucket lists,” the Skydive Chicago spokesperson told The Sun-Times. “But Dorothy reminds us that it’s never too late to take the thrill of a lifetime.”

She was “calm and confident” as the Skyvan plane door swung open, more than 2.5 miles above the rural Midwest landscape, witnesses said.

Photos show Hoffner smiling as she and the certified instructor touched down in a patch of grass.

“The whole thing was delightful, wonderful, couldn’t have been better,” Hoffner, who would have turned 105 in December, said. 

Hoffner told reporters after her last jump she was thinking about asking her 109-year-old neighbor to join her on the next descent, according to the paper.

She said she wanted to take a ride in a hot air balloon next.