Breaking Iron Clad Ceilings: Yuriana Arnesto First Costa Rica Woman to be UH1 Helicopter Air Captain

  • Photo by ( U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica)

The Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea (SVA) – Costa Rica’s Air Surveillance Service – has mechanics, pilots, and police officers trained in the Aviation Program that the US Government gives to the SVA of Costa Rica through the INL.

Yuriana Arnesto is Costa Rica’s first qualified female UH-1ST helicopter pilot.The United States government is an unquestionable friend of Costa Rica, and as a result, the SVA has the Aviation Program, which is taught through the Office for Anti-Narcotics Affairs, Security Citizenship, and Justice (INL) of the United States Embassy.

Since Yuriana Arnesto Segura is an official of the SVA, Costa Rica now has the first qualified female UH-1ST helicopter pilot.Arnesto, 32, joined the SVA in 2011 and has since performed a variety of police duties in air surveillance.

The UH-1ST helicopters landed in Costa Rica on a Globemaster C-17 from the United States in 2019, and the Aviation Program began the same year. Arnesto became the first female aviation commander of the UH-1ST helicopters in this manner.

“It fills me with great emotion and pride, it is a great effort of many years of training and making an effort to achieve this great step that I took as a professional in the Air Surveillance Service,” said this Costa Rican. This was an objective, a dream that I desired wholeheartedly. I am grateful to God, my family, and the United States government for allowing me to train and service my country.”