Zara Rutherford On Solo World Flight

Web Desk — Teenage pilot Zara Rutherford is the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

Belgian-British aviator, 19, has etched her name in records as she flew 32,000 miles across five continents in five months.

As a result of bad weather and a visa delay, her plane was grounded for weeks in Mexico and Alaska.

Zara’s family, friends, and journalists greeted her as soon as she landed in Kortrijk-Wevelgem in Belgium. A video posted online shows the new world record holder teen being accompanied in her landing by four Belgian Red Devils aerobatic display planes.

Not only did the aviator shatter the record held by American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 when she flew around the globe in 2017, she also became the first woman ever to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight aircraft. She is also the first Belgian to fly around the world alone.

It has been a crazy five months for her, she said, “I haven’t quite processed it all yet”. “Being back here is strange”, she said. The frozen area of Siberia, she said, was the most frightening part of the journey.

In addition to being restricted to flying during the day, she was forced to make several diverted or hasty landings due to her aircraft. Thunderstorms and winter storms in eastern Russia and Dubai also kept her grounded.

Zara left on August 18, 2021, in a bespoke Shark ultralight aircraft, she thought her journey would take about three months.