After a five-month adventure during which he battled monsoon rains, sweltering heat, and bureaucracy, a British-Belgian adolescent became the youngest person to fly solo around the world on Wednesday.
Mack Rutherford, 17, who had flown 54,124 kilometres and visited more than 30 countries since taking off from the same location in his Shark Aero microlight aircraft on March 23, was greeted with cheers as he touched down at an airstrip close to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
There were numerous times during my journey when it would have been simple to give up.But I persisted, even when it appeared that I wouldn’t be able to finish,” he remarked. Two Guinness World Records were broken by his journey.He said with a big smile, “Amazing to finally be here again and to have done my aim.
“It took a little bit longer than I had anticipated, but it was an extremely intriguing and thrilling journey, and I don’t regret going on it at all.”Rutherford’s journey took longer than expected because of permit delays, which required him to fly via Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, North America, and then back to Europe. He also had to change his course twice.
His favourite flyovers included Iceland, Greenland, and the Sahara Desert. However, his journey was not without its difficulties, such as a 10-hour flight in terrible weather from Japan to the deserted US Attu Island across the Pacific Ocean.
