Woman celebrates 90th birthday skydiving from 10,000 feet: ‘Close to heaven up there’

The oldest person to skydive is Alfred 'Al' Blaschke from Texas. He had dived when he was 106 in November, according to the Guinness World Records. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A US woman recently celebrated her 90th birthday by going skydiving from a plane 10,000 feet in the air as her family looked on -- a feat that she had done for the first time 20 years ago when she was 70.

“You’re kind of close to heaven while you’re up there,” Eleanor Mann told ABC27. "I just thought it was an interesting thing to do, and I loved it. Before just floating down through the air, it was just wonderful."

She added that she would go skydiving again if she lived till 90.

Speaking about her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren cheering her while she stuck the landing, Mann said, "[It’s] a blessing that they love me so much that they would take their time and drive so far. I just appreciate it so much.”

Meanwhile, the owner of the skydiving organisation, Ozarks Skydive Center, told the media that seeing older clients make the jump is one of the best parts of the job.

“We love it. As much as we enjoy sharing the sport with everybody, we love to see those folks come out. It’s kind of a special thing for them,” said Bryan Wolford, owner of Ozarks Skydive Center. “And when we can share it with somebody at 90, that’s pretty neat.”

But Mann wasn't their oldest skydiver, it was a 96-year-old.

But the oldest person to skydive is Alfred “Al” Blaschke from Texas. He had dived when he was 106 in November, according to the Guinness World Records.

He first broke the record in 2020, aged 103, when he jumped out of a moving plane at 14,000 feet to celebrate his twin grandsons’ college graduations.

“That was my dream... I never thought I’d be around this long,” Al had said. That was his second skydive ever; his first took place three years prior, on his 100th birthday, the Guinness World Records stated. Al decided to do his most recent skydive after his record was broken in 2022 by a Swedish woman named Rut Linnéa Ingegärd Larsson, who was aged 103 years 259 days.