19-YEAR-OLD BECOMES WORLD’S YOUNGEST FEMALE SOLO PILOT

Zara Rutherford has become the youngest woman to circumnavigate the world in a microlight aircraft.

In doing so, she also broke two Guinness World Records.

Rutherford told CNN that the hardest part of her journey was flying over Siberia in freezing temperatures.

“It was minus 35 degrees Celsius on the ground. If the engine were to stall, I’d be hours away from rescue and I don’t know how long I could have survived for.”

In Alaska and Russia, she was held back because of visa and weather issues. In California, she was forced to make an unscheduled landing due to poor visibility because of the wildfires in the Seattle area.

While on her journey, she was denied permission to fly over China.

The 19-year-old Rutherford holds dual citizenship from Belgium and the United Kingdom. She has beaten the record held by American Shaesta Waiz who was 30 when she circumnavigated the globe unaccompanied back in 2017.

Image credit: The Indian Express