Teenager flying across globe set to hit record
BRUSSELS — Avoid typhoon in the Philippines. Check.
Steer clear of massive California wildfires. Check.
Keep away from test missiles in North Korea. What? Wait.
As teenage pilot Zara Rutherford flew ever onward in a record-challenging global odyssey, she met little as strange or scary as when she tried to squeeze in between North Korean airspace and a massive cloud threatening to cut off passage for her ultralight plane.
“Well, they test missiles once in a while without warning,” Rutherford said. More importantly, she was just 15 minutes from flying over one of the last places one should enter uninvited.
So she radioed her control team to ask if she could cut the corner over the isolationist communist dictatorship to get to Seoul. “Straight away they said: ‘Whatever you do, do not go into North Korean airspace!’ ” Fortunately the clouds cooperated enough and she didn’t have to continue the crash course in applied geopolitics.
At the age of 19, she is set to land her single-seater Shark sport aircraft in Kortrijk, Belgium, on Monday, more than 150 days after setting out to become the youngest woman to circumnavigate the world solo.
American aviator Shaesta Waiz was 30 when she set the previous benchmark.
Flying runs in Rutherford’s blood since both her parents are pilots and she has been traveling in small planes since she was 6. At 14, she started flying herself and about 130 hours of solo flights prepped her for the record attempt, which she hopes will also have a bigger meaning.
With the final touchdown in a plane that looks like a fly among the giants parked at an airport like New York’s JFK, the BelgianBritish teenager wants to infuse young women and girls worldwide with the spirit of aviation — and an enthusiasm for studies in the exact sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology.