17-year-old flies around the world in 30 days to raise a million dollars for underprivileged

KARACHI: 17-year-old Haris Suleman, the youngest person ever to fly a plane, aims to pilot a single-engine plane along with his father Babar Suleman, to complete a world journey in only 30 days.

After starting his journey on June 19 from Indiana, US, the boy smoothly landed his aircraft at the runway of the Karachi airport on Tuesday, 1 July.

The purpose of this trip is to raise money for The Citizens Foundation (TCF) schools in Pakistan. Last year, 19-year-old pilot Ryan Campbell from Australia became the youngest person to fly a single-engine plane around the world in 70 days. But Ryan flew solo.

Haris who comes under a different category says he is not that interested in creating a record, rather “we intend to raise US$1 million for TCF, half of which we already have done”.

Dawn reports that the American-born Pakistani teenager- Haris Suleman accompanied by his father began his journey from Plainfield, Indiana, USA, on June 19, and the duo have already visited Canada, Iceland, England, Greece, Egypt and the UAE before reaching Pakistan.

“Only one-third of the journey is covered,” said Haris as they still have on their list Bangladesh, Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, American Samoa, Kiribati, Hawaii and California, which they intend to cover by July 20.

The Sulemans, who migrated to the US in the 1980s, have undertaken the challenge in a bid to raise money to help educate Pakistan’s poor children.

They are supporting The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) which is celebrating opening its 1,000th school in Pakistan. On Tuesday, they took off from Al Ain, the UAE, in the morning to reach Karachi in the afternoon.

The Express Tribune reports that as they landed in Karachi, a man shouted ‘Welcome to Pakistan’, as Babar’s sister, Nasreen ran to hug him. She had come to receive the two at the airport. Several children of The Citizens Foundation (TCF) schools, whom the son and father are supporting with their project, broke into applause once Haris stepped out of the single-engine aircraft.

“For you, we have come all the way,” his father told the school children, as they shook hands and took flowers from them.

The idea to fly around the world came to him in January, when Babar, who was born in Pakistan, randomly asked his son: “Dunya ka chakar lagana hai? [Do you want to go around the world?]”

He finally set off on the journey on June 19, from Indiana, with Haris who had got his private pilot licence only a month-and-a-half earlier, leading the plane.

They flew over water and deserts, visited tourist spots and collected souvenirs before they came to Karachi. So far, they have stopped in Iceland, England, Egypt and the UAE.

“It has been fun but flying over the ocean made me nervous,” Haris admitted. “And we had to wear these ridiculous orange suits when flying over water.”

Since it is not recommended for single-engine planes to make ocean voyages, and since 60 per cent of the trip was over the oceans, including the Atlantic, Pacific and parts of the Indian Ocean, Haris and his father took a sea survival course to know what to do in the event of a mishap.

The pilots said that so far they hadn’t faced many issues except for their stop in Egypt. “All airports in Egypt close after 8pm. We also wanted to see the pyramids for which we made changes to our schedule to stay there another day. But the pyramids were a bit of disappointment, as the city touches them,” said Babar, the father.

Another thing they did was to avoid Saudi Arabia. “I had heard many stories about the technical team at the airports there,” he added.

Haris said he had been flying with his father since his childhood. “Dad has been showing me the ropes since I was eight years old but I got my private pilot’s licence only one-and-a-half months ago,” he said.

They have another major challenge coming up at the end of their tour when they will be flying their longest 13-hour journey from Hawaii to California. In order to be able to make the long voyage possible, the senior Suleman also had to fix an extra fuel tank in the plane.

In 2011, when he turned 15, Haris started formal training. “A 17-year-old can get a private pilot licence in the US with 50 hours of cross-country flying,” he explained. “When I left the US for the trip, I had 103 flying hours.”

All the way from the US, Haris’ mother calls frequently to make sure his clothes are clean. “When I would go for training, she would text me to remind me if I had checked the fuel. ‘Was there enough oil?’”

Nasreen, Haris’ aunt, admitted the family was very scared before the start of the trip and they tried to tell them to call it off. “Flying in a single engine aircraft is very scary,” she said.

After spending five days in Pakistan with relatives, Haris and his father will head off to Bangladesh, Bali, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii and reach California by July 21. “Back home, my classmates are very excited,” said Haris. They want him to take them for a ride on his plane as well.

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