A 19-year-old pilot landed his single-engine airplane in El Cajon, California Monday night, and in that instant broke the world record for youngest person to fly around the world. Matt Guthmiller, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student from South Dakota, finished a month-and-a-half-long journey around the globe.

Guthmiller flew more than 29,000 miles in his leased 1981 prop-powered, single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza A36. During this time, Guthmiller made nearly two dozen stops in 14 countries in his travels.

He began the journey on May 31, according to his mother, Shirley Guthmiller, who greeted Matt when he landed in California.

"I'm very relieved he is home, but I wasn't worried," she said in a telephone interview.

Matt Guthmiller was interested in aviation at a young age and was 16 years old when he got his pilot's license.

"As a little kid, he was afraid to go down to the basement," his father, Allen Guthmiller, said. "It's amazing how kids change. Now he's not afraid of anything."

The MIT engineering student is planning to turn his flight documents to Guinness World Records to confirm he broke the record, according to his parents. Guthmiller had already been approved to try to complete the flight and senior public relations manager at Guinness, Jamie Antoniou, said the results should be announced Thursday. Currently, the record for youngest circumnavigator was set in 2013 by a then 21-year-old fellow American, Jack Wiegand, who made his trip in about two months.

Australian Ryan Campbell claimed he also flew around the globe at 19 years old, but Antoniou said Campbell's evidence was not completed until "very recently." According to Shirley Guthmiller, Campbell helped Matt plan his trip.

Guthmiller kept in regular contact with family and friends by satellite phone and by routine social media posts.

"I'm proud of him and I really wasn't worried," his father said. "He had a good plane and a good plan."