Tsk tsk the turn this thread has taken. What ever happened to doing things because they're awesome? How many of us are ever going to travel the world in one go? See it all from a small plane, how amazing that would all look and how much fun it would be to arrive in places you've never even heard of. Doing that at age 17 would be one hell of an adventure, and to get to do it all with his Dad would be one hell of an awesome experience they'd always look back on.
In this case, I get the feeling the father likely had a heavy influence on the 17 year old kid's decision. But in general, when people want to break records like this, I'd argue it's more for them than it is caring what any of us think. Personal accomplishments are big to some people, myself included, and they're not things that you do for bragging rights to others. I can totally see the appeal in this trip had it gone right. Since they did emergency training before the trip, they knew there was a chance they wouldn't make it. I'm not going to debate about who had the final say on how worthwhile the risk was, but again, that isn't up to us to determine for these two. I may think something is worth risking life and limb for that you wouldn't cross the street for, it is just a matter of perspective. At the end of the day, we can judge people who die trying to accomplish a goal like this, or we can just assume that since they went for it, they were willing to take the risk. I'm much more impressed with a 17 year old kid who died trying to be the youngest person to fly around the world than I am with a 47 year old basement dweller who has no motivation in life and will live another 30 years.
Just sayin'.