Teen becomes first Turk to cross Atlantic in single engine plane

Uğur Cebeci - ISTANBUL

A 17-year-old has crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a single-engine airplane, becoming the first Turkish person to achieve this feat.

Selim Sulyak has set a record in the history of Turkish Civil Aviation by staying in the air for 36 hours and 30 minutes in a single-engine airplane.

Covering more than 8,500 kilometers, Sulyak became the youngest pilot and the first Turk to cross the Atlantic in a single-engine airplane.

Explaining his journey to daily Hürriyet, Sulyak said that he took off from Maine in the morning with his instructor/co-pilot in heavy cloudy weather and flew northeast for 1.5 hours to Kuujjuaq, where he originally planned to land, but due to worsening weather conditions, he landed in Narsasuaq, his backup landing location.

Sulyak, who flew for 5.5 hours at an altitude of 19,000 feet and crossed the Atlantic Ocean without any problems, said that he wore an inflatable boat, red heat protector and special suit for a possible emergency landing, and had oxygen cylinders ready.

The young pilot flew non-stop for three hours to Kulusuk, stopping overnight in Greenland, and then landed in Iceland, while witnessing natural wonders.

"The sun reflecting off the melted glaciers was spectacular. I flew close to the volcano on the way down to Iceland and the subsequent flights were amazing as well,” he said.

Noting that some malfunctions that occurred on the plane during the flight were quickly resolved through contacts established with the U.S. teams, Sulyak said the rest of the flight took him to Scotland, Netherlands, Romania and finally Türkiye, landing in Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

Raised in a family of aviators, Sulyak is said to have dreamed of becoming a pilot and crossing the Atlantic since he was a child, becoming the youngest qualified pilot to fly across the ocean, at the young age of 17.