Yoko burns up on atmospheric reentry in a flashback scene in Phase 38.
An atmospheric drop (大気圏投下 Taikiken Tōka?) (Viz Media: atmospheric immolation) is a form of capital punishment that is carried out by dropping the condemned into a planetary atmosphere, burning them up in atmospheric entry. A military tribunal of the Earth Orbital Alliance sentenced Yoko to death via this method for carrying out Operation Maulwurf, a terrorist attack that resulted in the Camranh Tragedy in ES 386.[1] She crash landed near Star City where she lay until she was discovered by Daisuke Ido in ES 577.[1] This retconned the original explanation of how Yoko arrived on Earth in Battle Angel Alita. Originally she had crash landed after escaping in a zubringer when the spacecraft she and her fellow Künstlers were on was attacked by a mysterious opponent 200 years before during the Terraforming Wars.[2]