India and Pakistan found themselves on the brink of a war-like situation this month following a deadly attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead and several others injured. Both countries had launched a series of tit-for-tat measures — banning the use of airspace, suspending the Indus Water Treaty and even expelling diplomats. Matters escalated further last week with India launching Operation Sindoor to strike terror camps across the border and, later, fend off Pakistani attacks. Teen pilot Ethan Guo found himself flying from Karachi to Mumbai earlier this month against this alarming backdrop — perhaps the only individual taking that particular route through the skies.
“I’m attempting to become the first person ever to fly to all seven continents solo. It’s Day 99 and I’m trapped in Pakistan because no planes are allowed to fly directly to India. So after getting strip searched a total of eight times and convincing the Indian military to not shoot me down…I finally took off to Mumbai with a six hour delay,” Guo can be heard saying on an Instagram video.
The clip stitched together various moments from his cross-border experience and the outlined the many delays and security hurdles he had faced. It was posted on Instagram towards the beginning of May — days after New Delhi suspended the Indus Water Treaty and Pakistan closed its airspace to Indian airlines. However it remains somewhat unclear when the footage was filmed, although a fundraiser page puts his current location down as India.
Guo also explained in the short video that he had flown from from Karachi to Mumbai on Day 99 — only to land in the midst of a storm. A short excerpt from his post showed the Asian-American teenager huddling under the wing of a plane alongside Mumbai airport staffers.
He had first learnt how to fly an airplane at the young age of 13 and earned his private pilot license at 17. Guo spent several years trying to achieve his dream of becoming the youngest pilot to circumnavigate the world and reach all seven continents — while running his own small company that “made computers”. The plan however took a grim turn after his cousin developed stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2021. Guo had subsequently decided to use his record-setting endeavour to raise $1 million for cancer research.
“I admire him. He inspired me to take life more seriously and join the fight against cancer. I want to use every opportunity to raise awareness of childhood cancer and the necessity to increase research efforts to find prevention and treatment methods,” he wrote on the fundraiser blog.