US teenager who was circling globe in plane dies in crash

PETALING JAYA: American teenager Haris Suleman (pic), who attempted to circle the globe in a single-engine aircraft in 30 days and made a pit stop in Malaysia, has died in a crash.

Fox News reported that the plane flown by the 17-year-old crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly after taking off from Pago Pago in American Samoa on Wednesday.

Search and rescue authorities were still looking for his father Babar Suleman, who was also on board the plane.

Haris and Babar had stopped over at Subang Airport on July 11, their ninth stop, after a seven-hour flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

They extended their stay until July 15 after Haris fell ill, according a blog posting by his father a day after they left Malaysia.

Although they had missed their 30-day target, they were continuing with their plans to travel the 41,843km, through 25 cities in 15 countries, as planned earlier.

If Haris had completed his journey, he would have broken the record of 19-year-old Australian Ryan Campbell last year for being the youngest person to circle the globe.

Haris also wanted to help raise funds for The Citizens Foundation, a non-profit organisation in Pakistan which builds and operates schools for the less fortunate children in that country.