Boy Propels Himself Into the Record Book : Youngest Pilot Ever to Fly Around the World Touches Down in Orange County

Eleven-year-old Tony Aliengena landed his plane at John Wayne Airport on Saturday, after a sometimes treacherous 21,567-mile odyssey which made him the youngest pilot to circumnavigate the globe.

The fourth-grader from San Juan Capistrano performed a low fly-by for a welcoming crowd of about 100, then bought the borrowed Cessna 210 Centurion to a landing by a red carpet on the airstrip where he and his family departed June 5.

Tony’s 2:28 p.m. arrival brought applause and cheers from friends and supporters who gathered on a balloon-festooned Tarmac outside Martin Aviation, which helped sponsor Tony’s trip.

With hordes of news people looking on, Tony taxied the single-engine plane to a stop alongside the red carpet. But perhaps in a fitting denouement to the obstacles he encountered on his trip, Tony’s door jammed and he was forced to crawl out the other side.

Emerging from the cramped cockpit after his final 950-mile leg from Seattle, Tony--accompanied by his mother, Susan, father, Gary, 10-year-old sister Alaina and 11-year-old Soviet pen pal, Roman Tchermenykh--appeared nonchalant about his record-setting aviation accomplishment. “I’m glad to be home,” he said.

His mother was more ebullient. “It was wonderful. It was a great trip,” she said. “Tony did a great job.”

In the half-hour ceremony that followed, more accolades were heaped upon Tony by local dignitaries. Thomas F. Riley, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, presented Tony with a resolution of congratulations. Eddie Martin, the 87-year-old patriarch of Orange County aviation and founder of Martin Aviation, welcomed the boy aviator with a smile and a hug.

“I’m real proud of you, real tickled to death,” Martin said.

Stepping on a box so he could see over a podium, Tony answered reporters’ questions and said he had no immediate plans to match or surpass his around-the-world flight.

“I might fly pole to pole,” Tony joked. His father displayed an expression of mock surprise.

In the ceremony, Gary Aliengena introduced and thanked all 14 members of Tony’s entourage, which included a four-member film crew from Los Angeles, a chase plane pilot, a Times reporter and a Soviet journalist, who made a speech in halting English.

“I think Tony is a brave pilot,” said Aleksie Grinevich, correspondent for the Moscow newspaper Soviet Culture. “He saw many cities (in the Soviet Union). He saw our kids want to laugh and live in peace.”

Completion of the grueling, 7-week voyage--dubbed Friendship Flight ’89 because of its international friendship theme--earned Tony recognition by the National Aeronautic Assn. as the youngest pilot ever to fly around the world.

The NAA, an aviation record-monitoring organization in Washington, had sent observer Gunter Hagen along in Tony’s plane to verify that the boy remained in sole control of the aircraft. Hagen confirmed that Saturday, and said Tony never had to repeat a flight leg, as he did last year in his record-breaking flight as the youngest pilot to traverse the United States. Then, a flight instructor riding in the co-pilot’s seat grabbed the plane yoke during a Tennessee thunderstorm, forcing Tony to redo the leg.

Tony’s trans-global flight also earned him recognition as the first private pilot to fly the 7,000-mile breadth of the Soviet Union. In so doing, Tony traveled for days over terrain so inaccessible that he was not within radar reach much of the time.

The night before the last leg home, the elder Aliengena, 39, a real estate investor and trucking company entrepreneur, reminisced about the trip and said the only thing left was a meeting with President Bush. Tony, he said, wants to present the President with a “friendship scroll” signed by thousands of children during the trip.

Tony’s arrival in Orange County was marred somewhat by the crash that took place last Tuesday night off a gravel airstrip in the tiny Eskimo village of Golovin, Alaska, where Tony’s father had brought Tony and his entourage for a three-day fishing respite after their re-entry into the United States from the Soviet Union.

While ferrying Tony and six other members of his entourage out of the village that night, Aliengena lost control of the aircraft and it veered off a 50-foot embankment down to a swamp below. The right wing caught fire on impact and the plane suffered other major damage, but all eight occupants managed to escape without serious injury.

The day after the crash, Gary Aliengena borrowed another Cessna 210 Centurion from Alaskan businessman Ralph C. Meloon Jr. and sought to deflect attention from the accident to his son’s flight.

“This is about Friendship Flight ‘89, not a mistake by old dad,” Aliengena said as the family was readying to depart from Nome, Alaska.

Back home in Orange County, Tony looked forward to the prospect of playing again with his own friends. One of them, 10-year-old David Turley, was on hand at the airport to welcome Tony.

“We’re gonna do lots of things,” David grinned. “Like build rockets!”