SAMOA, July 26 — The US Coast Guard announced on Thursday that it had recovered the body of an Indiana teen off the coast of American Samoa in the wreckage of a plane he co-piloted with his father.

Haris Suleman, 17, and his father Babar, 58, had planned to complete a 30-day flight around the globe in a single-engine plane. The pair departed for Canada from Greenwood, Indiana on June 19 and continued to fly east, making stops in Europe,Africa and Asia.

With plans to return home on July 27, the Sulemans departed for Hawaii from Pago Pago, American Samoa on the night of July 22. Radar data indicated their plane crashed 23 miles of the coast of the island shortly after take-off. Weather conditions at the time are unknown.

The US Coast Guard found Haris’ body in the wreckage on the following day, while Babar remains missing. The Coast Guard has deployed a plane and two ships to continue the search for additional plane debris and Babar Suleman among the islands in the remote Pacific.

Even with delays along the way, Haris would still have set the Guinness World record for the youngest person to fly around the world in a single-engine plane in the shortest amount of time.

The trip was made to raise money for the Citizens Foundation, a non-profit company that builds schools in Pakistan. — Reuters 

With plans to return home on July 27, the Sulemans departed for Hawaii from Pago Pago, American Samoa on the night of July 22. — Reuters pic