His father was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Captain, his brother later became a Boeing 747 Captain. Enrico "Rico" Santamaria had always wanted to be a commercial airline pilot. After graduating from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, he completed the ab initio program of Philippine Airlines (PAL) Aviation School as a member of the Class of 1978-D with his commercial pilot’s license with instrument training.

He went from the flying school's small trainers (the AA-1A) to the airline's 60 passenger turbo-props (the YS-11) as his first assignment with PAL. While still a probationary pilot, he was furloughed in 1980 due to the worldwide energy crisis and was recalled after 3 years, becoming one of the six YS-11 copilots in PAL's fleet of 7 YS-11s. After a year, the YS-11s were phased out and he was assigned to the 48-seat twin turbo-prop – the AVRO HS-748. Three years later, he moved to the British Aerospace BAC 1-11 twin jet seating 109 passengers. Though still almost all domestic flying, the PAL BAC 1-11 also occasionally flew to Xiamen and Beijing, China.

He was hired in February 1989 by United Airlines during a tremendous hiring spree, with classes of 25-30 new pilots every week for the next 3 years. His first position was as a DC-10 Second Officer (flight engineer) with the most common trip being the "Six Day Bangkok Strangler," Los Angeles-Honolulu-Tokyo-Bangkok-Tokyo-Honolulu-Los Angeles. This was when he realized that he now lived across the ocean and that "going home" meant landing in Los Angeles on the other side of the Pacific rather than in Manila. Flying as a flight engineer exposed him to the wisdom of the senior pilots, with regards to finances and where to live in the Los Angeles area.

Things were moving fast at United Airlines in the early 1990's. He made the right seat of the Boeing 737-300 in only 18 months. After another 2 years, he moved up to become a Boeing 757/767 first officer (1992), experiencing both domestic and international flying. In 1996, seven years after being hired, he made captain of the 737-300 flying for "Shuttle by United" brand - UA's response to Southwest Airlines. Shuttle flying was mostly up and down the West Coast, 4 to 6 legs a day with 25 min. ground time in between. And like Southwest, there was a bit of cowboy flying involved. He volunteered to fly the 737 unpressurized from San Diego to San Francisco with passengers! He also got to back a 737 off the gate in Reno using reverse thrust.

In 2000, he returned to the more disciplined world of mainline flying as an Airbus A-320 captain, then moved to back to Boeings as 757/767 captain in 2004.

During the "Lost Decade" (2002-2012) after 9-11, the US airline industry fell into the doldrums and the major airlines went into and recovered from bankruptcy. Rico was fortunate to have successfully navigated that decade as a line holder captain with a regular schedule flying the 757/767 to Denver, Chicago, the East Coast and to Hawaii. This was the airplane and the flying where he spent the bulk of his career.

In 2017 an opportunity arose to fly the Boeing 777, a true long range wide body airliner. While his training flight was from Chicago to Hong Kong and back, all the 777 operations out of Los Angeles were on domestic routes, mainly to Denver, the East Coast and Hawaii (again!).

Within a year of Rico's transition to the Boeing 777, United Airlines consolidated all 777 operations to San Francisco. But he was able to stay in Los Angeles by quickly following an opportunity to become a Boeing 787 Captain! Initially most of his 787 flights were across the Pacific; Los Angeles-Shanghai-San Francisco-Shanghai-Los Angeles. Later his regular route moved over to the North Atlantic; Los Angeles-London-Denver-London-Los Angeles. Though there were plenty of cheap goods to buy in Shanghai, he preferred the London layovers - looking forward to watching comedy shows and musicals and visiting museums. He also had the chance to fly this aircraft to Sydney, Melbourne, Munich and Frankfurt.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, United's 787 operations were consolidated in San Francisco, and Rico had to commute to another base for the first time in his career. His new route now took him from San Francisco to Tokyo to New York, back to Tokyo, then on to San Francisco. This 7-day trip was analogous to the 6-day Bangkok Strangler that he flew when he started with the airline 31 years ago – almost like a full circle.

The threat of catching Covid-19, the degradation of schedules as the airline adapted to the pandemic, plus the scarcity of available flights to commute made working conditions harsher and somewhat scary. Thus, it was a blessing when ALPA - the pilot union - was able to negotiate an early retirement deal with the airline and Captain Santamaria became one of several hundred pilots who took this opportunity.

After 38 years of flying airliners, 25 years as captain, he had a fulfilling career starting from the classic Japanese and British turbo props and peaking with the latest of Boeing's new designs – the 787 Dreamliner. There were no major incidents in his decades of flying and aside from parking at the wrong gate once (or twice) he had none of the hair-raising emergencies that people like to hear about when interviewing pilots. He did experience many non-normal situations as can be expected in a long career: inflight engine shutdowns, lightning strikes, racing a thunderstorm (and losing), fuel issues, air traffic conflicts requiring maneuvering (TCAS), passenger misconduct or expelling passengers before departure and comical experiences like almost leaving the co-pilot behind on pushback and locking a dog in the lavatory.

Captain Enrico "Rico" Santamaria officially retired on his 65th birthday in 2021. Overall, with no major incidents throughout his career, he has had enough experiences on which to reminisce that he doesn’t feel the need to do any more flying during retirement. He is enjoying his retirement with his wife, Merle, and two adult daughters.