May 6, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Supergrandmother made a parachute jump at the age of… 104 years


Dorothy Hoffner put down her walking aid and took a breathtaking leap from more than 15,000 feet in northern Illinois. The event can be included in the Guinness Book of Records, because the elderly lady is no less than 104 years old and she is probably the oldest skydiver!

“It’s wonderful there,” Dorothy said when she landed. A brave grandmother jumped with a parachute for the first time when she turned 100 and repeated her jump, declaring that “age is just a number.”

When she descended “from heaven to earth,” dozens of people were already waiting to greet her with applause. The Guinness Book of Records named Ingegard Larsson from Sweden as the oldest skydiver to make the jump in May 2022. Now it is expected that the record will go to Dorothy Hoffner, reports WLS-TV.

Dorothy Hoffner made the jump on Sunday when, with the help of an instructor, she boarded a small Skyvan plane, which took her to an altitude of more than 4 km. The first time she skydived, her instructor had to push her out of the plane. But this time she took a step into the void on her own, although she was flying accompanied by a trainer.

The elderly woman was calm and very confident as the plane began to circle over the corn field. And now the exciting moment has arrived! She moved to the edge of the door and took a leap. She did everything as expected: she turned over in the air before finding her balance and orienting herself relative to the horizon of the earth. Then the parachute opened and a smooth “return to earth” occurred.

The parachute jump lasted a total of seven minutes. Her friends were waiting to congratulate her, and caring hands moved the walker on which she leans when walking. When asked how she felt, the parachutist replied: “Great. It was great there. Everything was amazing, wonderful, it couldn’t have been better.”

The supergrandmother from Chicago, before enjoying her achievement, began to talk about her plans for the future, that she would like to fly in a hot air balloon. “I’ve never been in a hot air balloon,” she explained, noting that it was “her dream.” Dorothy Hoffner will turn 105 in December.



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