104-year-old woman dies days after going skydiving to break Guinness World Record

Dorothy Hoffner, a 104-year-old Chicago lady who just established a record by skydiving, has died.

Hoffner died before Guinness World Records certified her as the oldest person to ever leap out of a plane.

Joe Conant, a close friend, claimed she was discovered dead by workers at the Brookdale Lake View senior living complex on Monday morning, Oct. 9. Conant stated that Hoffner died in her sleep on Sunday night, October 8.

Conant, a nurse, said he met Hoffner — whom he nicknamed Grandma at her request — several years ago while working as a carer for another senior living centre resident. He claimed she had boundless energy and stayed cognitively alert.

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She was unstoppable. “She just kept going,” he explained on Tuesday, October 10. “She was not the type to take afternoon naps or skip out on any function, dinner, or other event.” She was always completely present. She never stopped going.”

Hoffner made a tandem skydive on Oct. 1 that could put her in the record books as the world’s oldest skydiver. She jumped out of a plane at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, about 85 miles (140 kilometres) southwest of Chicago.

“Age is just a number,” Hoffner addressed the throng as he touched down. It wasn’t her first time jumping out of a plane —that happened when she was a spry 100 years of age.

Conant said he was working on documentation to ensure that Guinness World Records recognises Hoffner as the world’s oldest skydiver posthumously, but that it might take some time. Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson, 103, of Sweden set the current record in May 2022.

Conant stated that Hoffner did not skydive to set a record. He stated that she had completely loved her first jump and wished to repeat again.

“She had no plans to break the record.” And she was uninterested in any kind of publicity. “She was only doing it because she wanted to go skydiving,” he explained.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, Oct. 10, Skydive Chicago and the United States Parachute Association congratulated Hoffner.