British teen becomes youngest woman to fly solo around the globe
A British teenager has become the youngest women to fly solo around the world after completing the 32,000 mile journey in 260 hours.
Zara Rutherford, 19, told people to ‘do something crazy with their lives’ as she touched down at Kortrijk-Wevelgem airport in Belgium on Thursday.
The self-confessed plane obsessive covered 52 countries and five continents in her Shark Ultralight, the world’s fastest light sport aircraft.
She was greeted by cheering friends and family and accompanied on the final leg of journey by the Belgian Red Devils aerobatic display team.
With a nod to her British and Belgian heritage, she proudly draped herself in the flags of both countries as she told reporters she would never attempt the feat again.
‘It’s just really crazy, I haven’t quite processed it,’ she said.
‘Growing up I didn’t see many other female pilots so right now I am trying to be a friendly face for other girls who want to fly or study Stem subjects and know they are not the only ones.’
After North and South America, Zara was stuck for a month in Alaska because of weather and visa delays.
A winter storm forced another long stop in far eastern Russia, before she travelled to South Asia, the Middle East and back to Europe.
Describing the scariest moments of the trip, she said: ‘There was one time I got a bit of a fright when I was leaving Singapore in a thunderstorm.
‘There was a lightning strike and I wasn’t expecting it so that was scary.
‘Otherwise flying over Siberia and Alaska – Alaska was very turbulent and it was very tough as I was flying for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres without seeing anything human, no roads, no electricity cables, no people and then during the flight you are thinking if the engine stops I have one big problem.’
Her favourite flyovers were New York and an active volcano in Iceland, but she again feared for her life when she narrowly escaped entering North Korean air space during bad weather.
To meet criteria for a round-the-world flight, Zara touched two points opposite each other on the globe: Jambi in Indonesia and Tumaco in Colombia.
Her route took her through the UK, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the US and Latin America to Colombia, then back north via Alaska to Russia, China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East before ending in Belgium.
The previous female record-holder was American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 at the time of her circumnavigation in 2017, while the male record-holder is 18.
Answering questions in French, Dutch and English, Zara said she was now looking forward to spending time with her family and getting to see her cats.
Her next plan now is to go to university to study computer science or computer engineering in September.
‘I don’t think I will be doing this again exactly but I am looking forward to speaking to people about my experiences, to encourage people to do something crazy with their lives.’ she said.
‘It takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, a lot of work but it is incredible and it is very rewarding.’
She added: ‘I am very lucky because both my parents are pilots and when I was growing up I was always around airplanes and I thought it would be really cool to fly around the world but I never thought it would be possible.
‘I always thought it would be too difficult, too dangerous, too expensive so I never thought much about it and then I was finishing school and thought it was the perfect opportunity to do something crazy and fly around the world.’
Miss Rutherford set off in August for the trip as part of her gap year after finishing at St Swithun’s School in Winchester, Hampshire
In future she hopes to be an astronaut.
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