You would think that living to be a 100 was already a big enough accomplishment but this appears to be not a great enough feat for Dorothy Hoffner. This Chicago native jumped off a plane when she was 100 years old and is attempting to do it again at 104.
According to an NBC news report she jumped out of plane at 13,500 feet while strapped on to an instructor from Skydive Chicago. She landed on grass at a countryside somewhere in Ottawa, Illinois.
“Age is just a number,” said Hoffner to a crowd who were applauding her when she landed. After the jump she was assisted back to her walker.
On October 1st she was picked up from her home at Brookdale Lake View senior living center in Chicago and driven to Skydive Chicago’s headquarters. There, she left her walking cane behind before boarding a small plane.
Hoffner lives in an assisted living facility in Chicago. She said that she first got the idea from a friend. “When I heard about it, I thought, I want to do that. It’s fun, and it seemed so nice and peaceful, coming down with a parachute on top of you. You can see the whole countryside, it was so beautiful.”
Hoffner and her incredible feat
Her feat has been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records with approval expected to take between 12 and 15 weeks.
Hoffner said that she was surprised by all the media attention she was getting as reporters have been calling her ever since the jump.
“They just care about my age. Everyone seems so impressed,” she said. She added that all she did was attach herself to an expert and let him do all the work.
Before Hoffner, the record was held by Rut Linnea Ingegard Larsson, a 103-year-old from Sweden. She was born in 1918, which is the same year as Hoffner.
The oldest solo parachute jumper is Maria Yegella, who was 84-years-old. She made the record jump in the solo category in Florida last year.
Read More News
High credit card debt sparks debate over Bidenomics
The photo above is from Wikipedia