Meet The Youngest Woman to Fly Solo Round The World

The 19-year-old British-Belgian pilot Zara Rutherford set a world record as the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, touching her small airplane down in western Belgium on Thursday - 155 days after she departed.

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Zara will find herself in the Guinness World Records book after setting the mark that had been held by 30-year-old American aviator Shaesta Waiz since 2017.

The overall record will remain out of Rutherford´s grasp, since Briton Travis Ludlow set that benchmark last year as an 18-year-old.

Her global flight in her ultralight Shark plane was supposed to take three months, but relentless bad weather and visa issues kept her grounded sometimes for weeks on end, extending her adventure by about two months.

On Thursday, rain, drizzle, sunshine and even a rainbow over Kortrijk airport exemplified the changing, often bad weather she had been facing all too often.

After she was escorted by a four-plane formation in a huge V across much of Belgium, she did a flyby of the airport before finally landing. After waving to the jubilant crowds, she embraced her parents and draped herself both in the Union Jack and Belgian tricolor flag.

'Winter in Europe poses a lot of challenges,' she said as she was held back for days on the last few legs of the trip. Then again, she had had to deal with -31 F in Siberia and 90 F in Indonesia. Fog, smoke from wildfires and even typhoons also held her back.

She stopped over in five continents and visited 52 countries in a journey which covered over 32,000 miles of land.

'The people were incredible, everywhere,' she said.

Rutherford's flight saw her steer clear of wildfires in California, deal with biting cold over Russia and narrowly avoid North Korean airspace.

She flew by Visual Flight Rules, basically going on sight only, often slowing down progress when more sophisticated systems could have led her through clouds and fog. 

'It's very strange being back here,' she told a media conference, adding that, after an epic journey with stops in nearly 30 countries, she was looking forward to putting her feet up for a while in just one place.

'I'd like to do nothing next week,' she laughed. 'It was harder than I imagined.'

Rutherford - whose both parents are pilots and her father flew for Britain's air force - fielded questions in English, French and Dutch.

She explained that Russia's vast, frozen expanse of Siberia was the 'scariest' leg of her journey: a place of overwhelming distance between habitations, and where the temperature fell below minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

'I'd be going hundreds and hundreds of kilometres without seeing anything human - I mean no electricity cables, no roads, no people - and I thought "if the engine stopped now I'd have a really big problem",' she said.

'Pretty nerve-wracking.'

Navigating the world in a tiny, 717-pound Shark UL single-propellor plane, loaned to her under a sponsorship deal, meant she had to skirt around clouds and could not fly at night.

The restrictions meant many times she had to divert or make hasty landings - including taking to ground quickly early this month, just a short distance from Dubai, to avoid getting caught in the first thunderstorm that city had seen in two years.

There was also a long three-week stretch for most of November in a Russian eastern coastal town called Ayan where she could not take off because of the weather, relying on kind locals who were 'very willing to help with anything I might need'.

She did not escape the Covid pandemic and related restrictions, either.

China barred her from its airspace because of virus curbs, 'which meant I had to do a huge detour to avoid North Korea - and that took six hours over water,' she said. 'That was a pretty nerve-wracking experience.'

She was subjected to PCR tests 'all the time' to get clearance, and 'Asia was extremely strict, so I had to make sure that I had to stay in hotels'.

But the 32,000-mile trip, tracked on her website and caught on cameras she took with her, also brought its share of unique experiences.

They included flying around the Statue of Liberty and seeing a SpaceX launch in California, soaring above Saudi Arabia's 'diverse' landscape, stopping in Colombia, seeing an isolated house on its Icelandic island, and powering along 'beautiful' Bulgarian valleys. 

'I've been through some stuff,' Rutherford said, adding: 'So many countries, so many kilometres, but every single one was amazing.'

'It will be very strange to not have to fly every single day anymore - or try to fly every single day,' she said.

'I'm just happy to finally be in the same spot for, you know, a few months hopefully.'

Sometimes she feared for her life, and at other times she yearned for the simple comforts of home.

Flying runs in her blood since both her parents are pilots and she has been traveling in small planes since she was six.

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At 14, she started flying herself.

With the final touchdown, the teenager wants to infuse young women and girls worldwide with the spirit of aviation - and an enthusiasm for studies in the exact sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology.