Lachlan Smart touches down on Sunshine Coast, having travelled 44,000km and stopped in 15 countries

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Queensland teenager Lachlan Smart has become the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a single aircraft.

He touched down on the Sunshine Coast at Maroochydore on Saturday, having departed the same airstrip on July 4.

Smart, who is 18 years, seven months and 21 days, stopped in 24 locations and 15 countries on his way to taking the Guinness world record from American Matt Guthmiller, who completed his circumnavigation when he was 19 years, seven months and 15 days.

Smart started his last leg from Bundaberg, where he had completed much of his flight training since the dream of taking on the record breaking flight began two-and-a-half years ago.

“What a welcome,” Smart said on touching down. “The support I have received from family, friends, the local Sunshine Coast council and community and people around the world that I have never even met has been incredible from the first moment we spoke about this journey.”

Smart was considerably less complimentary about Indonesia’s traffic control, however, saying he would have been scraped off the side of an Indonesian mountain had he obeyed local traffic controllers.

The Sunshine Coast teenager said he ignored regional traffic controllers in Indonesia and chose his own route as he navigated the country because of misguided instructions. He said poor radio reception and a “blase’” attitude was also an issue passing through the south-east Asian country.

“There were no major failures of equipment ... but I did have trouble with air traffic control coming out of Indonesia,” he said. “They would have run me into a mountain if I had gone with their instructions.

“I stuck to my training pretty well and when I saw what they were going to try and send me through I thought, ‘They’ll be scraping me off the side of a mountain if I go that way’.”

Smart travelled more than 24,000 nautical miles (44,000km) on his epic journey, which included more than a week’s break visiting family and sightseeing in London.