MONTEGO BAY, St James – History-making Jamaican pilot Captain Barrington Irving Jnr was yesterday presented with the key to the city of Montego Bay, in the process creating another record as the first person to be so honoured by this city’s mayor, Councillor Noel Donaldson.

“I believe you should know that in my four years as mayor I have never seen it fit to present the key to the city of Montego Bay to anyone,” Donaldson told the 23-year-old Irving who last month completed a solo flight around the world. The feat placed his name in the record books as the first black and youngest person to accomplish that mission.

Irving, who is majoring in aerospace at Florida Memorial University, is on a four-day visit to the island as guest of the Government. His visit to Montego Bay yesterday followed a round of activities in Kingston on Friday where he arrived to a hero’s welcome.

Yesterday, at a civic reception in honour of the young pilot at the historic Sam Sharpe Square, Mayor Donaldson said he felt proud and honoured to present the symbolic key to Irving.

In his address, Captain Irving told the audience that he had been rejected for years before accomplishing his record-breaking feat.

“As a black man saying, ‘Hey, I want to fly around the world’, many people doubted. Many people expected me to come back in a coffin. But I am back and I am not in a coffin,” he said.

“To all the young people that are standing here present, listen up. Everybody told me that I couldn’t do it because my family never had any money,” Irving continued. “I didn’t have any money. I started off in the inner-city and I started off washing aeroplanes. For two-and-a-half years people rejected me. Here I am today, by the grace of God. The same kid that started off washing aeroplanes now owns his own aeroplane, now owns his own business and has two world records.”

Captain Irving embarked on his journey in a single-engine plane called “Inspiration”. He traversed four continents, covering 26,800 miles in three months, encountering snow, rain, sandstorms and monsoons along the way. He returned to Miami on June 27.