She was stranded in Alaska for a month at -18°C, had to make a detour of hundreds of kilometers to avoid North Korean missiles and visited billionaire Richard Branson on his private island… At 19, Zara Rutherford is became the youngest pilot to complete a solo circumnavigation of the globe, and the first person to do so in a microlight in 155 days.
"I'm so happy but I still can't believe it," admits the aviator on her arrival on the tarmac at Kortrijk-Wevelgem airport (Belgium).
Zara Rutherford earned her pilot's license in 2020, having trained with her father since she was 14.
Leaving on August 19, 2021 from Belgium, her trip was repeatedly delayed due to bad weather.
"When it wasn't in Russia that it feared, it was on the side of Nome (Alaska)", explains the young pilot.
Despite some technical setbacks, Zara managed to achieve its goal.
Read alsoVIDEO.
Tangled in her sail after a failed trick, paraglider Maud Perrin recounts her fear
“Growing up, I saw few girls fly, I thought it was discouraging,” admits the one who wants to become an astronaut one day.
“So in the future, I would like to push more girls into aviation.
And generally pushing people to do something a little crazy.”
With her performance, she broke a record set by American aviator Shaesta Waiz, who was then 30 when she completed her solo circumnavigation in 2017.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/Z45E6KV7VJGUXAKJWH7VA4NJSE.jpg)
