She could have started college. Instead, she flew over 32,000 miles on five continents for five months.
“My name is Zara Rutherford, a teenager,” she told the internet after leaving Belgium in August. “I’m attempting to fly solo around the world,” she said, aiming to be the youngest woman ever to do so.
Ms. Rutherford (19 years old) dodged lightning flashes in Mexico and giant clouds in Colombia. Bad weather and a visa delay caused Alaska’s tiny plane to be grounded for weeks.
This was all before the British aviator and Belgian aviator crossed a frozen, deserted patch of Siberia. Before China made her exile from its airspace. Before smog obstructed her route across India.
Ms. Rutherford fell two months behind schedule as delays piled up. But she didn’t quit. On Thursday, she became the youngest woman ever to circumnavigate all of the world solo when she landed at Kortrijk in Belgium. To show support and welcome her home, supporters lined the tarmac to greet her.
“I didn’t expect a 19-year-old to beat my record,” Shaesta Waiz, an Afghan American pilot who set it five years ago at the age of 30, said earlier. “It just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what your gender or your age is; it’s all about determination.”
(Travis Ludlow from Britain, who was 18 years old when he circumnavigated the globe solo, is the youngest person to do it.
Sea to sea
As Ms. Rutherford flew across Atlantic Ocean in August, she was forced to fly as low at 1,500 feet by clouds. Because her plane, which is only 22 feet in length, is a two-seater, she was not certified to fly with instruments alone.
When she landed in Greenland after losing radio contact for several hours, she sent her parents — her mother is a recreational pilot; her father, a professional one — a two-word text message: “I’m alive.”
Later she stated that she assumed the going would be much easier in North America. It didn’t.
In Florida, she navigated around thunderstorms during hurricane season. She was flying from Seattle to Seattle in September when wildfire smoke poured into her cockpit from Northern California. It clouded her view and forced her to turn around.
She was also confronted with challenges on the ground.
Because the daylight was getting dark, she landed at an unknown airfield in North Carolina. It was so small that nobody was there when she arrived. She hitchhiked to the nearest city, as a taxi company would not pick her up.
She was forced to wait several more days for her Russian Visa to be renewed in Nome, Alaska. Bad weather kept her there another few weeks.
Ms. Rutherford stated that she was touched by strangers’ kindnesses along the way, including the Alaskan man who hosted her despite the fact that his family had just welcomed a baby.
“When I left, his daughter was 5 weeks old, so I was there for over half her life,” she said.
Ms. Rutherford stated that she plans to study computer science or electrical engineering in college and that she wants to become an astronaut. She has also received moral support by other female aviators.
At a stop in Florida, Ms. Waiz greeted the teenager’s plane and offered tips on dealing with adversity. Capt. As a gesture of solidarity, Erin Pratt (a search-and rescue pilot with the Canadian Armed Forces) gave Ms. Rutherford the flying wings she had worn every day for seven year as a gift.
Captain Pratt, 34 years old, later stated that flying any distance in a single engine plane is difficult for any pilot. She said that it is extremely brave to do this at low altitudes on a round-the world trip.
“I look at that, and I’m like, girl, you are fierce,” said Captain Pratt, who became a pilot at 16 and joined the Canadian military at 18. “That is amazing.”
Tundra to the Tropics
Ms. Rutherford stated in August that she was under immense pressure to reach northeastern Russia before September ends to avoid bad weather. She ultimately crossed Siberia in early November — at a time when ground temperatures were as low as minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 35 Celsius).
She said that she had seen airfields she could have used for an emergency landing on one flight over remote areas. They were also covered in snow.
Ms. Rutherford planned to cross the Chinese mainland from Russia, where she was again stranded by bad weather for a few weeks. Because China had imposed a coronavirus protocol on her, she was prohibited from flying in its airspace and she had to travel more than six hours by water toward South Korea.
At one point, menacing clouds threatened her flight toward North Korea.
“Do I head back to Russia?” she said she asked herself. “Do I cut into North Korean airspace and risk having some trouble with their military?”
She was finally allowed to land in South Korea according to plan, but her itinerary was quickly disrupted again by a low pressure system linked to a typhoon that hit the Philippines.
After being grounded several days in Borneo by bad weather, she had to make a hard decision about when she would take off again. She managed to cross the tropical island and landed unscheduled at a domestic airfield at its southern tip. That was a safer bet than crossing the Java Sea — a notoriously dangerous place for planes — amid poor conditions.
A retired Malaysian fighter jet pilot who advised her on that Borneo leg, Lt. Col. John Sham, later said by telephone that he had been impressed by Ms. Rutherford’s poise, humility and instincts under very challenging circumstances.
“That is one fascinating, brilliant girl,” he said.
Homestretch
Late December saw Ms. Rutherford’s trip delayed by a flat tire. But, it was quickly overshadowed by a bigger challenge: Smog had made the air so bad in certain parts of South Asia that Rutherford could not safely cross the region, hugging the coasts in India and Bangladesh, as she had planned.
This required another solution: a nearly 1,000-mile flight across a remote stretch in the Indian Ocean. (Sponsors and airports covered the cost of the trip, no matter where it took her.
“One thing I’ve learned on this trip — and I think this applies to everyone — is that you’re capable of more than you think you are,” Ms. Rutherford told reporters after crossing that ocean and landing in Sri Lanka in late December.
At that point, logistical hiccups weren’t just tolerable, but expected. Ms. Rutherford had to fly over the Arabian Sea from Mumbai (India) and was unable land in Dubai due to high winds. After landing in Greece, bad weather delayed her plans to explore Europe.
“I’m looking forward to my life not being weather,” she said in a telephone interview this month from Saudi Arabia.
She stated that she still enjoyed flying and was encouraged by young women around her who said she had inspired their passion.
What about the pendant of flying wings she had received from Captain Pratt? The search-and rescue pilot in eastern Canada. It was worn on her lapel every since Goose Bay.
“It was a sign of good luck,” she said. “I think it worked.”
Jenny GrossContributed reporting from Brussels
Source: NY Times