On a solo flight to circle the world, one teen pilot’s journey lands in Anchorage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - In a place where it sometimes seems like planes outnumber people, a single-engine Cessna 182 is nothing of note.

But that’s exactly what a small group of people were waiting for at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Monday evening.

The group wasn’t so much waiting for the plane, but for the pilot inside; 19-year-old Ethan Guo, who is well on his way to setting an aviation world record.

“I promised myself no matter what, I’ll get this done,” Guo said. “If it’s the last thing I do, so be it, I want to get this done no matter what.”

Guo set off nearly a year ago from Memphis, Tennessee, taking flight on May 31, 2024, to begin his journey to fly over all seven continents solo.

What began as a dream years ago is coming to fruition, as Guo has flown from North America to Europe, through Africa, Australia, and Asia.

Now, he has crossed the Pacific Ocean and is on his way to South America, and ultimately, his final destination — Antarctica.

Initially, Guo wanted to be the youngest person to fly around the world, beating the current record holder at the time.

“After a bunch of digging, I was, I think 13 at that time, I looked it up and it turns out the youngest person to fly around the world was 20 years old,” Guo said. “And I was like, I’m 13. It’s like, what, seven years? I could definitely do that. It’s easy — easy.

“I was wrong. It was not easy. But like I said in my head, it was the easiest thing I could have done.”

When Guo made his first attempt, he unfortunately experienced an engine failure on his first day, leaving him stranded and grounded for months.

During that time, the world record was broken by a 17-year-old, and Guo was already older than him.

The setbacks didn’t discourage him though, and Guo began preparing with renewed vigor to get his name in the history books. This time, not as the youngest, but the first to ever fly solo to all seven continents.

In that time, though, something else happened.

“While preparing for this journey, my cousin and best friend was diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer,” Guo said.

“I was trying to do what I could help, and to be honest, there wasn’t much I could directly do to help him,” Guo said. “And so I started reaching out to different hospitals, researchers, patients and just kind of trying to understand the problems a bit more.”

From those conversations, Guo met doctors and staff at St. Jude’s Children Hospital, which he has partnered up with in raising money for research and treatment in his “flight against cancer."

“It’s a global fight against cancer,” Guo said. “It affects literally everybody, everywhere. Nobody is safe from cancer. No matter who you are, what background, what religion, what culture, you know we’re in this together.

“I think that’s probably another reason that so many people resonate with it, because it’s a common struggle.”

To date, Guo has over a million followers on social media and has raised nearly $100,000, but with less than half his trip left, he is hoping he can reach his goal.

In his travels, Guo said he has come to better understand the truly worldwide impact cancer has.

“A lot of different countries I’ve visited, cancer’s not as public, it’s sometimes looked down upon,” Guo explained. “Sometimes, you know, people don’t want to burden other people, they think cancer is a big burden to other people, so they won’t tell anybody.”

Along the way, Guo has visited hospitals in different countries, meeting with patients and doctors in his bid to raise awareness and funds.

“When you break the world record, when you do something big, you also get a lot of attention,” he said. “So, we take that attention and we kind of divert it and transfer it into something that’s significantly more important than an aviation world record, which is the global fight against cancer.”

While Guo has not had any engine failures so far, his journey has not been completely without bumps. Most notably, a bad storm in southeast Asia led him to divert to Myanmar, a country in the middle of a civil war.

“After I landed, I of course did not have permission there, and it was in the middle of a civil war,” Guo said. “And so they brought me into a room, interrogated me for a couple of hours, and then they locked me up overnight, which, to be honest, was not that bad ... I didn’t get tortured, so there’s really nothing to complain about. So overall, I consider that a highlight of this trip.”

Guo said he was more nervous about a leg of the trip he had completed most recently: flying from Japan to the small Alaskan island of Adak, a flight that lasted nearly 16 hours, over open ocean, with not the best weather to boot.

“If something goes wrong, you’re going into the ocean and you’re probably not swimming back to land anytime soon, so those are definitely moments,” Guo said. “I guess one highlight I have is making it back — flying across the ocean and making it back and landing in one piece.”

Despite the difficulty of being alone for all his flights, Guo said he’s adjusted to the solitude.

“In the beginning, I had a very, very hard time,” Guo said. “But over time, you know, humans adapt, and I adapted, and I slowly got used to my own silence, used to the silence around me.”

In the end, Guo hopes his ambitious goal inspires others to do likewise.

“People don’t often realize that these massive goals, these massive projects — if you break them into digestible bits, they’re actually really achievable,” Guo said. “And so one thing I would say is set these grandiose goals, set these unachievable goals, but set them with a plan in mind, where you break each step into achievable bits, step by step, to get it done.”

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