Once around the world and covering around 52,000 kilometers: Zara Rutherford made a final stopover on her tour in an ultralight aircraft.
Egelsbach/Kortrijk – 19-year-old Zara Rutherford landed in a microlight at the airport in Egelsbach near Frankfurt on Wednesday and is now about to complete her circumnavigation of the world.
Rutherford said after landing that she was looking forward to returning home soon and to her family. The stop in Egelsbach, Hesse, the last stopover planned before the completion of the round-the-world trip, was delayed several times by days due to the weather. The Belgian-British pilot wants to fly on from Hesse to Kortrijk in Belgium, where her journey began on August 18 last year. With the flight she wants to break a Guinness World Record.
Getting girls excited about science
Rutherford wants to become the youngest woman in the world to fly that flight alone. So far, the US American Shaesta Waiz, who flew around the planet alone at the age of 30, holds this world record. The male record holder is an 18-year-old – for Zara Rutherford also a sign of gender inequality. She hopes to get more girls interested in science and aviation. In Egelsbach, she said the flight was a great experience, but that she didn’t want to repeat it.
According to a spokesman, the 19-year-old traveled around 52,000 kilometers in her ultralight aircraft. The journey went from Belgium via Greenland, Canada, the USA, the Caribbean, Colombia, north across the Bering Strait to Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, India via the Middle East and back towards Belgium. The team around the young woman, together with those responsible for the Guinness Book of Records, have confirmed the validity of the route and, among other things, all satellite data are available there. dpa
