17-year-old becomes youngest pilot to circle the globe solo
August 25, 2022, 9:00 am

17-year-old becomes youngest pilot to circle the globe solo

Pictures released on Wednesday shows Mack Rutherford after a world circumnavigation, in Sofia, Bulgaria. He became the youngest person who circumnavigated the globe solo in a small aircraft.Beatrice De Smet/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images

Mack Rutherford, a British-Belgian 17-year-old, landed in Bulgaria on Wednesday (August 24) after he broke the current world record for the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world.

Rutherford took off from Sofia on March 23 this year and landed again here after flying through 52 countries and logging up around 250 hours of flying time, according to the Xinhua.

Bulgaria was the starting and ending point of his journey due to the sponsorship of Bulgarian company ICDSoft.

His achievement was duly recognized by the Guinness World Records, which handed him two certificates immediately after landing: for the youngest (male) person to circumnavigate the world by aircraft solo, and the youngest (male) person to circumnavigate the world in a microlight plane solo.

"I am trying to show with this trip that young people can make a difference, just follow your dreams," the teenager said after landing.

Cheers roared as 17-year-old Mack Rutherford landed at an airfield in Bulgaria, completing his Guinness World Record of being the youngest to solo trip around the world https://t.co/fZrps1Wdar pic.twitter.com/fv82Cq1qzF
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 25, 2022

"I am not sure there are any other records I want to break at all, I just want to go back to school to catch up," he added.

There were several "hairy" moments during his five-month trip, he said, but he never gave up

Rutherford was born on June 21, 2005, so he turned 17 during the trip. He has lived all his life in Belgium.

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"I have known for certain I wanted to fly since I was 11, having flown hundreds of hours with my dad, who is a professional pilot," he said.

"When I was 15 years and three months old, I received my microlight pilot's license making me at the time the youngest pilot in the world. Since then, I have also flown two trans-Atlantic crossings."

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