Diana Ruiz

Diana Ruiz was born in Píllaro Canton, in Ecuador's Tungurahua Province on 7 April 1992.^[4] In 2009, she enrolled at the Cosme Renella Barbato Military Aviation School where she began training as a pilot. Ruiz was part of the first female graduating class at the Aviation School, and also was part of the third class of female weapon officers and technicians.^[5]

Ruiz made her first solo flight on 10 February 2010.^[3] On 13 March 2014 at age 22, Ruiz became the first Ecuadorian woman to fly a military aircraft at supersonic speed, when she piloted an Atlas Cheetah at Ecuador's Taura military base.^[6][7]

Ruiz died when the plane she was piloting crashed and hit a car and a motorcycle in Ecuador's Santa Elena Province on 26 November 2024. She was 32.^[8] Ecuadorian cadet Juan Andrés Pacheco Ramírez was also killed in the crash alongside her. At the time, Ruiz and Pacheco were conducting a training flight in a Diamond DA20 Katana. The plane descended with the engine off, and crashed while undertaking a forced landing on a central street in a neighborhood in La Libertad Canton.^[9][10] Two residents on the ground were injured in the accident.^[4][11]