KARACHI: A 17-year-old Belgian-British pilot attempting to become the youngest person to fly across the world solo in a small airplane arrived in Karachi on Saturday, after bad weather delayed his journey.
Mack Rutherford is trying fly to 52 countries on five continents to break the record of Travis Ludlow, an English aviator who flew across the world last year, at the age of 18.
He was initially scheduled to land in Karachi at 2 p.m. on Thursday and stay for two days before flying onwards to the Indian city of Ahmedabad.
“I have spent a lot of time waiting to be able to do this flight and am very happy that I was able to do it,” Rutherford told Arab News as he finally reached the southern Pakistani port.
“After making the Pakistan landing, I will now be able to carry on with my journey.”
Rutherford comes from a family of aviators and was inspired to take on the journey by his sister, Zara Rutherford, 20, who in January this year became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.
Having flown hundreds of hours with his father, a professional pilot, Rutherford received his microlight pilot’s license when he was 15, becoming at the time the youngest pilot in the world.
Rutherford started his journey in March from Sofia, Bulgaria, from where he flew south across the Mediterranean and through the Sahara to the Congolese jungle. Turning east through Mozambique and Madagascar, he reached the far eastern island of Rodrigues in Mauritius. He then flew north through his first antipodal point before continuing through the Seychelles and the Yemeni island of Socotra.
He then went onwards through Oman and the UAE.
As he spoke to Arab News from Dubai, before the Karachi flight, he said he was “expecting an amazing and unique experience in Pakistan.”
“I have heard Pakistan is very different from other places with deserts and mountains and I can’t wait to see it for myself,” he said. “I am happy to find out what the local food is and try it out.”
From Pakistan he will fly to India, China, South Korea and Japan, from where he will continue to Alaska and go down the West Coast of the US, to Baja California, and a small island in the Pacific, Isla Socorro, his second and last antipodal.
The last leg of Rutherford’s journey will take him through mainland Mexico and Texas, to New York and Canada. He will also visit Greenland and Iceland to cross the Atlantic to Scotland before continuing through England to Belgium and returning to Sofia.
