17-year-old becomes youngest person to fly solo around the world

He’s feeling like a star.

A 17-year-old became the youngest person to fly solo around the world after landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on Wednesday.

Mack Rutherford, a British-Belgian aviator, took off from Sofia on March 23 when he was just 16 years old and spent six months traversing 52 countries and five continents in a Shark ultralight aircraft.

Mack Rutherford talks to the media in Belgium on Tuesday, shortly before completing his circumnavigation of the globe. (Virginia Mayo/)

“Just follow your dreams, no matter how old you are – work hard and move forward to achieve your goals,” Rutherford said after landing on Wednesday.

Record-setting aviation runs in the family. Mack’s 19-year-old sister, Zara, became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world when she landed in January. Their parents are both pilots.

Zara was also the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight aircraft — until Mack broke that record too. Zara wasn’t upset about it.

Mack Rutherford brings his plane in for a landing in Belgium on Tuesday, one stop short of completing his journey. (Virginia Mayo/)

“While he was flying, I constantly tried to keep in touch and help him,” she said Wednesday. “Our parents called him every day, and I joined in those conversations. I gave him advice on the route, on the flight, so that I could be useful to him.”

Mack shared his circuitous route online and provided updates almost daily on an Instagram page. He faced a number of challenges along the way, most notably when he had to land on an uninhabited island at the end of Alaska’s Aleutian chain.

“Mackinson Crusoe was now on an uninhabited island, surrounded only by boarded-up buildings, battle relics, and memorials telling of the immense amount of lost souls to the place,” he said on Instagram after landing on the island of Attu. “Although the scenery was breathtaking.”

Attu was the site of a World War II battle but has been uninhabited since 2010. It still has an airfield though.

The previous record for youngest solo circumnavigation was held by Travis Ludlow, a Brit who was 18 years old when he finished the journey in October 2021.

With News Wire Services