104-year-old dies peacefully in her sleep 1 week after world record skydive

CHICAGO (Gray News) – The 104-year-old woman who likely set a world record last week as the oldest person to skydive has died.

According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, Dorothy Hoffner died peacefully in her sleep Monday, just a week after her Oct. 1 skydive in Illinois.

“Age is just a number,” Hoffner told a crowd that day after touching down safely, the Chicago Tribune reported.

She jumped from 13,500 feet, with the dive lasting seven minutes.

Skydive Chicago shared video of Hoffner’s amazing landing.

A spokesperson for Skydive Chicago and the U.S. Parachute Association told the Chicago Sun-Times they were happy to know that the skydiving experience served as an amazing end cap to Hoffner’s “exciting, well-lived life.”

Hoffner would have turned 105 in December. Following her skydive, she said she had wanted to ride in a hot air balloon as her next adventure, according to the Associated Press.

Hoffner’s skydive was actually the second time she jumped from a plane. She first did it when she was 100.

Guinness World Records told WLS-TV they are reviewing the information to confirm Hoffner to be the oldest skydiver in history. The current record holder was set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson from Sweden.