A 19-year-old ended her five-month trip flying around the world on Thursday, becoming the youngest woman to complete the trip solo.
Zara Rutherford landed at the Belgian Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport on Thursday after touching down in 30 countries on five continents since her August 18 departure.
She traveled 32,000 miles in her Shark ultralight single-propeller aircraft.
“It’s really just crazy. I haven’t quite processed it,” Rutherford told reporters after arriving.
The British-Belgian teen beat the record held by American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 when she traveled the globe alone in 2017. Rutherford also has the title of the first woman to circumnavigate the world in a microlight aircraft.
She is also the first Belgian to fly around the world alone.
Rutherford’s parents are both pilots, with her father having flown for the British air force.
“It’s very strange being back here,” Rutherford told reporters before adding that, after her world tour, she would “like to do nothing this week.”
She listed New York, an active volcano, and Iceland as examples of her favorite places to fly over.
But just like traveling anywhere alone can be exciting, it can equally be quite scary. Rutherford told reporters that there were also moments where she feared for her life.
The frozen expanse of Russia’s Siberia was the “scariest” part of her journey.
“I’d be going hundreds and hundreds of kilometers without seeing anything human — I mean no electricity cables, no roads, no people — and I thought ‘if the engine stopped now, Id have a really big problem,” she said.
Rutherford shared with reporters that her journey included several bumps along the way. She spent a month stuck in Nome, Alaska, and 41 days in Russia during the trip.
Her aircraft limited her to flying during the day, and she was also forced to make several diverted or hast landings in those 41 days.
A winter storm in eastern Russia also kept her grounded for about a month.
During a video update posted on Instagram, she said: “It is — 18c, and my hands are literally so cold. I’ve been here for almost a month.”
“I’ve been keeping busy. I’ve been applying to universities and keeping the plane ready to go,” she continued.
In one instance, the pilot said she had to touch down a short distance from Dubai to avoid a thunderstorm.
Rutherford also told reporters how her instruments malfunctioned in New Mexico due to a blocked pitot tube, and a flat tire left her stranded in Singapore over Christmas.
While in Veracruz, Mexico, she experienced an earthquake in her sixth-floor hotel room.
She said: “Suddenly the building started to sway. I don’t think I’ve ever run faster down the stairs. I was really expecting the most dangerous part of this trip to be in the air.”
Despite the challenges, and after spending Christmas and New Year’s away from her family, the teen appeared happy and smiling in her Instagram updates.
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