BREAKING: British-Belgian teen becomes youngest woman to fly solo around the world

Breaking News – A British-Belgian teenager has become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

A British-Belgian teenager has become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world today, January 20, she is also the first person to complete the feat in a microlight plane after a five-month, five-continent trip in her Shark ultralight.
Zara Rutherford, 19, landed back at Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in Belgium after flying 51,000 km (32,000 miles) above 52 nations since her departure on August 18 in the world’s fastest microlight aircraft.
“I wouldn’t do it again,” she confessed yesterday.
“There’s been amazing moments, but then there’s been moments where I had fear for my life,” she added, saying New York and an active volcano in Iceland were her favourite flyovers.
Rutherford was stuck for a month in Alaska after flying over North and South America, due to bad weather and visa delays. She had another long stop in Russia because of a winter storm, before travelling to South Asia, the Middle East and back to Europe.
Rutherford had to touch two opposite points on the globe to meet the criteria for the round-the-world flight – Jambi in Indonesia and Tumaco in Colombia.
The teen has snatched the record from Afghan-born American Shaesta Wais, who became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world at the age of 30 in 2017.

הטייסת הצעירה בעולם, Zara Rutherford, שהקיפה את העולם נחתה וקיבלה את התעודות בשדה: pic.twitter.com/O87Cu8iIZf

— Eli Zusman (@muki46) January 20, 2022

She has also become the first Belgian to circumnavigate the globe solo in a single-engine aircraft.
Rutherford has aspirations of becoming an astronaut and is hoping her odyssey will encourage women in science, technology and aviation.
Her website says: “Boys learn through toys, street names, history classes and movies that they can be scientists, astronauts, CEOs or presidents.”
“Girls are often encouraged to be beautiful, kind, helpful and sweet. With my flight I want to show young women that they can be bold, ambitious and make their dreams come true.”

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