Senior takes flying leap for birthday

RENTON, Wash. – Steve Eastman is used to celebrating his birthday with a bang. This year, when he turned 94 on the Fourth of July, he jumped out of an airplane from 12,000 feet. He had company, too.

His son, Harold Eastman, of La Jolla, Calif., and his granddaughter, Julie Pech, of Denver, jumped with him.

Pech’s 9-year-old daughter, Brittany, had hoped make it a four-generation affair. But she couldn’t legally jump because she’s not 18. So Eastman, whose family calls him “Pop,” gave her a certificate good for a free jump when she reaches legal age.

About 65 family members were at Skydive Snohomish at noon Sunday to watch. Eastman, his son and his granddaughter did a tandem jump, strapped to an experienced skydiver. They freefell about a minute before their parachutes activated around 4,000 feet.

“They’ve promised me a tiptoe landing,” Eastman said with a grin before the leap.

Eastman, who wears a pacemaker, had to get his doctor’s permission to make the jump. He came up with the idea five or so years ago. “I saw people doing it, and I thought it looked like fun,” he said.

Eastman’s wife, Hazel, died two years ago after 65 years of marriage. But if she had been there Sunday, Eastman said, he knows exactly how she would have felt.

“She’d want to go with me,” he said, calling her both an “angel” and a sport.

A former Boeing employee who spent 44 years with the company, Eastman now volunteers at the Museum of Flight and with his church.

He isn’t the oldest person to take the plunge at Skydive Snohomish, Harvey said. That distinction belongs to a 98-year-old man.