Cristina Amaral is the first female pilot in

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

(Timor-Leste), a country with less than 1.5 million people. She graduated from pilot training in 2015 and became a commercial pilot in 2018.

Early life

Amaral grew up in the village of Costa in

Oecusse Oecusse, also known as Oecusse-Ambeno (; ) and formerly just Ambeno, officially the Special Administrative Region Oecusse-Ambeno (), is an exclave, municipality (formerly a district) and the only Special Administrative Region (SAR) of East Tim ...

, which, although part of East Timor, is an enclave entirely surrounded by the sea and the land of

West Timor West Timor () is an area covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno (an East Timorese exclave). Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The capital as well ...

, which is part of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. She was the eldest of five children and had to balance responsibilities to help at home with her wish to perform well at school. Fortunately, she had a lot of support from her parents to pursue her education.

Training and career beginning

After leaving school she found the opportunity to pursue a pilot training programme through a government scholarship. Performing well in the application process, she obtained a full scholarship. However, she encountered difficulties as the flight course was given in English, and was forced to move to

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

to complete her training in a language she could better understand. She graduated in 2015, to become East Timor's first female pilot but stayed in Indonesia for a further two years, working as a flight instructor. In April 2018 she joined

Aero Dili Aero Dili is the national flag carrier airline of Timor-Leste. It has its hub at the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili, and uses a fleet of three aircraft to operate both domestic and international services. History Aero ...

, a small airline with just two small

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufactu ...

planes that does charter flights in East Timor. Such services are very much required in the mountainous country, where the roads are few and poor.

Awards and honours

*In 2015 Amaral was one of 47 "Women of Achievement" celebrated by

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...

on the 20th anniversary of the

Beijing Declaration The Beijing Declaration was a resolution adopted by the UN at the end of the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995. The resolution adopted to promulgate a set of principles concerning the equality of men and women. Text Declar ...

, which had been issued at the

World Conference on Women, 1995 The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace was the name given for a conference convened by the United Nations during 4–15 September 1995 in Beijing, China. At this conference, governments from around the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amaral, Cristina Year of birth missing (living people) Living people East Timorese women People from Oecusse Municipality