NAGPUR: A 19-year-old American attempting to become the youngest person ever to fly around the world solo reached India Thursday, more than a month into his aerial odyssey.
Matt Guthmiller, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), smiled and flashed a thumbs-up after he landed his single-engined Beechcraft A36 Bonanza aircraft in the city of Nagpur in Maharashtra state early Thursday.
“It’s been good, actually a lot of fun. I have been to some really interesting places. There have been a few small issues but overall it’s been fun,” Guthmiller told AFP by telephone. The bespectacled teen is set to cover 29,000 miles during his month-long journey, making 25 stops across 14 countries. He hopes to set a Guinness World Record by landing on July 8 in California, when he will be 16 days younger than Ryan Campbell of Australia, the current record holder.
Campbell was 19 years, seven months, and 25 days old when he arrived south of Sydney in 2013.
With more than 500 flying hours under his belt, Guthmiller has already zipped across the United States, Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, down through Egypt and onto the Gulf since he took flight in San Diego on May 31.
Guthmiller flew into Nagpur from Abu Dhabi where he said, “instead of aviation gas they gave me P4 engine oil. But it was all sorted out in the end.”
His next stops are Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, the Philippines, Australia and Samoa, where he said the weather can prove to be a challenge.
“I am going to a part of the world where monsoons can be an issue. The weather can really change from the time that I take off,” he said.
Guthmiller is raising money through sponsors and plans to donate all proceeds to Code.org, a non-profit organization that pushes for computer science and programming to be taught in schools.
“The goal is to raise $250,000. Cost of the trip is about $145,000. So I am looking at (donating) about $105,000 to Code.org,” he said.
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US teen pilot reaches India in world tour
US teen pilot reaches India in world tour
China says Philippines distorted facts about incident near disputed atoll
BEIJING: China’s defense ministry accused the Philippines on Wednesday of distorting the facts about an incident involving the Chinese coast guard and Filipino fishermen near a South China Sea shoal, a charge Manila strongly rejected.
The Philippine coast guard said over the weekend that three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coast guard ships cut their anchor lines and fired water cannon near the Sabina Shoal on Friday, actions the Philippine defense secretary denounced as “dangerous” and “inhumane.”
The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained,” and vowed to “take strong and effective measures” in response to “all acts of infringement and provocation,” according to a statement released on its social media account.
“The Philippine side amassed a large number of ships in an organized and premeditated manner to illegally intrude” into the atoll’s lagoon, the ministry said. “Philippine personnel even threatened Chinese coast guard on site with a knife,” it added.
Philippine defense ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong maintained that Manila has evidence to counter China’s assertions.
“The facts are not distorted. They are documented, timestamped, and corroborated by video recordings, vessel logs, and on-site reporting by the Philippine Coast Guard,” Andolong said in a statement.
“The Philippines is not hyping the issue, the facts speak for themselves. These are aggressive and excessive actions of an encroaching state,” he added.
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone 150 km (95 miles) west of Palawan province.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway supporting more than $3 trillion of annual commerce. The areas Beijing claims cut into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
An international arbitral tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.
The Philippine coast guard said over the weekend that three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coast guard ships cut their anchor lines and fired water cannon near the Sabina Shoal on Friday, actions the Philippine defense secretary denounced as “dangerous” and “inhumane.”
The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained,” and vowed to “take strong and effective measures” in response to “all acts of infringement and provocation,” according to a statement released on its social media account.
“The Philippine side amassed a large number of ships in an organized and premeditated manner to illegally intrude” into the atoll’s lagoon, the ministry said. “Philippine personnel even threatened Chinese coast guard on site with a knife,” it added.
Philippine defense ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong maintained that Manila has evidence to counter China’s assertions.
“The facts are not distorted. They are documented, timestamped, and corroborated by video recordings, vessel logs, and on-site reporting by the Philippine Coast Guard,” Andolong said in a statement.
“The Philippines is not hyping the issue, the facts speak for themselves. These are aggressive and excessive actions of an encroaching state,” he added.
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone 150 km (95 miles) west of Palawan province.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway supporting more than $3 trillion of annual commerce. The areas Beijing claims cut into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
An international arbitral tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.
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