CLARK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Pampanga – 19-year-old Zara Rutherford became the youngest woman to complete a round-the-world flight all by herself inside the cockpit of her petite 325-kilogram Shark UL single-propeller plane Thursday, Jan. 20 in Belgium.
What was supposed to be a three-month odyssey was completed in about six months, with the first leg starting as a short hop across the Channel from her Belgian hometown of Kortrijk to England on August 18, 2021.
One of her stops was the Philippines where she landed at Clark Airport last December.
“I’m happy to be here. Flying here is a bit easier than it was in Russia, so I’m happy. Northern Russia was very difficult, very, very cold, bad weather, strong winds. Flying here is a very big up because I was stuck in Alaska for one month and in Russia for another month. And coming here, I was thinking I needed to be early to have time to scrape off snow from my wings but the weather when I got here, it’s wonderful,” Rutherford told this writer.
Rutherford, who holds both FAA and UK private pilot licences plus Slovakian and French microlight licences, completed her historic feat when she touched down at an airfield outside the Belgian town of Kortrijk to a crowd of journalists, well-wishers and family.
"It's very strange being back here," she told a media conference, adding that, after an epic journey with stops in nearly 30 countries, she was looking forward to putting her feet up for a while in just one place.
She explained that Russia's vast, frozen expanse of Siberia was the "scariest" leg of her journey: a place of overwhelming distance between habitations, and where the temperature fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit).
"I'd be going hundreds and hundreds of kilometers without seeing anything human—I mean no electricity cables, no roads, no people—and I thought 'if the engine stopped now I'd have a really big problem'," she said.
There was also a long three-week stretch for most of November in a Russian eastern coastal town called Ayan where she could not take off because of the weather, relying on kind locals who were "very willing to help with anything I might need."
While in the Philippines, Rutherford, who is the daughter of former military pilot Sam Rutherford and former lawyer Beatrice De Smet, was ably assisted by Will Staughton, Capt. Vic Zotter, John Ho and Karl Wilhelm of the Arayat Aero Club and Good Boys Flying and members of the Philippine team helped the teen pilot secure permits until she flew out of the Philippines which was slightly delayed due to Typhoon Odette.
The deadly storm prevented Rutherford to fly to Davao and Cebu.
“I have always wanted to experience a big adventure and this is certainly one of the biggest adventures I could do. I was finishing school, too and hoping to get to a university next year, so this is a great period of my life where I can actually have some time to do something crazy,” said Rutherford whose interview was made possible through the help of her father, Sam.
“You see, in one or two years I’ll probably have a job, my own family and then I can’t do something like this anymore,” she added candidly.
Zara wants to become an astronaut someday and also plans to take up Engineering in college in preparation for that. Her exposure to flying with both her parents being pilots probably had a lot to do with the influence of aviation in her young life.
But there is so much more to this mission that Rutherford was willing to accomplish – that is, to encourage girls and young women to pursue their dreams and to reduce the gender gap in Aviation as well as in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
“Only 5% of commercial pilots are women, and 15% of computer scientists are women. That’s an extremely low number considering these are amazing careers with wonderful opportunities.
In both areas, the gender gap is huge. In fact, it is a dream gap. Our dreams are formed in early childhood. Upbringings shape our dreams,” said Rutherford.
Zara’s route spanned across 52 countries and 5 continents, with various stops and a specially prepped aircraft to withstand the circumnavigation.
Her journey started in Belgium, then headed west.
During her initial route she has travelled above UK, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, USA, Latin America to Colombia. Then, Zara headed north.
During her return trip, she has flown above Alaska, Russia, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, the Middle East, and landed in Belgium, Europe, after six long months. (With a report from Agence France Presse/Guinessworldrecords.com)