Brussels, Jan. 20 (BNA): 19-year-old Zara Rutherford, the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, returned to Belgium on Thursday after a flight that spanned 52 countries and five continents.
German news agency dpa said the Belgian-British girl landed at Kortrijk-Weilgem Airport – the last leg of an expedition that began in August and lasted for 156 days – to be greeted by her family, fans and throngs of reporters.
Within hours, Guinness World Records confirmed that Rutherford was indeed the youngest woman to complete the feat, and also the youngest person of any gender to sail alone in a lightweight aircraft.
Her most prominent personality traits? Siberia, though it was, in her words, “the most difficult past.” “I remember Taiwan was great and it comes to Bulgaria,” she told reporters.
Rutherford beat former American record holder Shaista Wise, who traveled the planet solo at the age of 30 in 2017. The male record holder was 18 years old.
The young pilot has been promoting her epic journey on social media, hoping to attract more women and girls interested in aviation, or science and engineering more broadly.
Rutherford flew a lightweight European-made aircraft called the “Shark” capable of cruising at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, depending on its location.
The teen comes from a family of pilots: her mother is Belgian and her English father is both pilots.
She knew firsthand what the cockpit would have looked like from the inside when she was only a few months old.
At the age of 14, she learned how to fly an airplane and soon started working for her first pilot’s license.
“When I grew up I was always around planes,” she said Thursday. After school, Rutherford explained, she decided it was the perfect time to “do something crazy” and fly around the world.
She is scheduled to begin her undergraduate studies in electrical engineering in September.
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