Élisabeth Thible died in Paris on 13 February 1785, less than a year after her historic balloon flight.
Élisabeth Thible died on 13 February 1785 in Paris, only eight months after her celebrated flight over Lyon. Historical sources provide little detail about the circumstances of her death, and her life after the famous 1784 ascent remains poorly documented, a common fate for women of her era whose public visibility was tied to a single notable event rather than sustained public careers.
Her relatively early death—likely in her late twenties—means the full scope of what she might have achieved as an aeronaut or public figure remains unknown. Unlike some of her male contemporaries in early aviation, she did not have the opportunity to build a long career or reputation in the emerging field of aerostation.
Despite the brevity of her documented life and the sparse historical record, Thible's death did not erase her singular contribution: she remains remembered specifically for breaking the gender barrier in free-flight ballooning, a legacy preserved primarily through brief mentions in ballooning histories, aviation retrospectives, and modern efforts to recover the stories of overlooked women pioneers.