Polaris Award

The Polaris Award is the highest decoration associated with civil aviation, awarded by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) to airline crews in recognition for acts of exceptional airmanship, heroic action or a combination of these two attributes. In extraordinary cases, passengers may also obtain this award for their heroism. These awards are not made every year but are presented at IFALPA's annual conference.

Past awards

1983	Mr Donald W Usher	Mr Melvin E Windsor		Air Florida Flight 90	Rescue helicopter crew
1984	Captain Donald S Cameron	FO Claude Quimet		Air Canada Flight 797	Cabin fire
1985	Captain J Gibson	FO G Lintner	FE G Laurin	Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8	L188 Electra propeller loss, and flight controls jammed
1986	Captain Hani Galal	Mr E Mounib		EgyptAir Flight 648	Hijack
1987	Captain M Takahamo	FO Y Sasaki	FE H Fukuda	JAL 123	Decompression, total control failure
1989	Captain R L Schornstheimer	FO M L Tompkins		Aloha Airlines Flight 243	Explosive decompression
1990	Captain Alfred C Haynes	FO William Records	FE Dudley Dvorak, Captain Dennis E Fitch	United Airlines Flight 232	Uncontained engine failure, total hydraulics and control failure
1991	Captain A Grischenko			Chernobyl disaster	Helicopter pilot who hovered over the reactor to allow cement to be dropped onto it
1992	Captain Stefan G Rasmussen	FO Ulf Cedermark		Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751	Dual engine failure after take off
	FO Alastair Atchison			British Airways Flight 5390	Windscreen failure
	Captain W C Query	FO Q E Haynes			Mid-air collision
1993	Captain C Justiniano				Hijack, two successful forced landings
1996	Captain A Faria e Mello				Paraplegic, wheelchair pilot
	Captain B Dhellemme	FO Jean-Paul Borderie	FE Alain Bossuat	Air France Flight 8969	Hijack
1998	Captain L Abate	Mr M Mekuria		Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961	Hijack, ditching
1999	Captain U Khan	FO M F Querishi			Hijack
2000	Captain N Nagashima	FO Ka Koga		All Nippon Airways Flight 61	Hijack
	Captain J Yamauchi
	Captain T Higuchi
	Captain H Takagi
	Captain H Nishikata
	Captain Y Iwai	Mr D Sugama
2001	Captain William Hagan	FO Richard Webb	FO Phil Watson	British Airways Flight 2069	BA 2069, attempted hijack
United 93	Captain Jason M Dahl	First Officer Leroy Homer
United 175	Captain Victor Saracini	First Officer Michael Horrocks
AA 11	Captain John Ogonowski	First Officer Thomas McGuinness
AA 77	Captain Charles Burlingame	First Officer David Charlesbois	9/11 attacks
2005	Captain Eric Gennotte	FO Steeve Michielsen	FE Mario Rofail	2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident	Loss of all hydraulics and controls
	Captain I Lyngmo	FO K M Andresen		Kato Air	Lightning strike, elevator control failure
	Captain S M Lian	FO K M Andresen	Mr Odd Eriksen, Mr T Frantzen	Kato Air	Attempted hijack
	Captain L Kurka	FO M Turk		Austrian Airlines	Fokker 70 dual engine failure
2008	Captain T Arnold			Nationwide Airlines	Engine separated from aircraft
2009	Captain D McMillan	FO R Haverfield		Eagle Airways Flight 2279	Attempted hijack
2010	Captain J Bartels	FO B Werninghaus	SO P Tabac	Qantas Flight 30	Oxygen bottle explosion, rapid depressurisation
2011	Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny	FO M Hicks	SO M Johnson, Captain H Wubben, Captain David Evans	Qantas Flight 32	Uncontained engine failure
2014	Captain Malcolm Waters	FO David Hayhoe		Cathay Pacific Flight 780	Contaminated fuel leading to engine failure[1]

References

1. Parry, Simon (2014-04-20). "Pilots reveal death-defying ordeal as engines failed on approach to Chek Lap Kok". Post Magazine.