London, Europe Brief News – A teenage pilot has become the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a small aircraft.
Mack Rutherford, 17, landed at Sofia in Bulgaria, after a five-month journey across 52 countries.
Along the way, Mack, who was born to British parents but has grown up in Belgium, encountered sandstorms in Sudan and spent the night on an uninhabited Pacific island.
His elder sister Zara is the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.
She completed her own journey in January this year and disclosed that she had “given him advice on the route” as she travelled to Sofia to greet Mack as he returned to the starting point of his trip.
The previous record holder for flying solo was British pilot Travis Ludlow, who was 18 years and 150 days old when he completed his journey last year.
After completing the feat, Mack encouraged others to “follow your dreams, no matter how old you are”.
“Work hard and move forward to achieve your goals”, he added.
The trip took him through Europe, Asia, Africa, the US, across two oceans, with his plane touching down in the UK at Wick in Scotland and departing from London’s Biggin Hill Airport earlier this week.
Mack, who comes from a family of aviators, set off from the Bulgarian capital on 23 March, with the arduous journey seeing the extreme heat in Dubai and unexpected airport closures in India.
The young aviator also said he had slept in a shed beside a runway on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean after a “hairy moment” passing through rain and low cloud.
