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

class="wikitable sortable"

!Year

!Captain

!First Officer

!Other flight crew

!Incident

!Circumstances

1983

| Mr Donald W Usher

| Mr Melvin E Windsor

|Unknown

| Air Florida Flight 90

| Rescue helicopter crew

1984

| Captain Donald S Cameron

| FO Claude Ouimet

|Unknown

| 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

| FO Imad Mounib

|Unknown

| EgyptAir Flight 648

| Hijack

1987

| Captain M Takahama

| FO Y Sasaki

| FE H Fukuda

| Japan Air Lines Flight 123

| Decompression and loss of control

1989

| Captain R L Schornstheimer

| FO M L Tompkins

|Unknown

| 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 Anatoly Grischenko

| Chernobyl disaster

| Helicopter pilot who hovered over the reactor to allow cement to be dropped onto it

rowspan="3" | 1992

| Captain Stefan G. Rasmussen

| FO Ulf Cedermark

| Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751

| Dual engine failure after takeoff

FO Alastair Atchison

| British Airways Flight 5390

| Windscreen failure

Captain W C Query

| FO Q E Haynes

|Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2254

| Mid-air collision

1993

| Captain C Justiniano

| Hijack, two successful forced landings

rowspan="2" | 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

rowspan="6" | 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

rowspan="5" | 2001

| Captain William Hagan

| FO Richard Webb

| FO Phil Watson

| British Airways Flight 2069

| BA 2069, attempted hijack by a paranoia panic attacked person

Captain Jason M Dahl

| FO LeRoy Homer Jr.

|United Airlines Flight 93

| rowspan="4" |9/11 attacks

Captain Victor Saracini

| FO Michael Horrocks

|United Airlines Flight 175

Captain John Ogonowski

| FO Thomas McGuinness Jr.

|American Airlines Flight 11

Captain Charles Burlingame

| FO David Charlesbois

|American Airlines Flight 77

rowspan="4" | 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 Flight 603

| Lightning strike, elevator control failure

Captain S M Lian

| FO K M Andresen

| Mr Odd Eriksen, Mr T Frantzen

| Kato Air Flight 605

| Attempted hijack

Captain J Kurka

| FO M Turk

| Austrian Airlines

| Fokker 70 dual engine failure

2008

| Captain T Arnold

| Nationwide Airlines Flight 723

| 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 stuck at high thrust setting{{cite web |first=Simon |last=Parry |url=http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1491534/pilots-reveal-death-defying-ordeal-engines-failed-approach |title=Pilots reveal death-defying ordeal as engines failed on approach to Chek Lap Kok |date=2014-04-20 |publisher=Post Magazine}}{{cite web |first=Smithsonian |last=Channel |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikq0iP4F_vE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190912230529/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikq0iP4F_vE |archive-date=2019-09-12 |url-status=dead|title=Air Disasters: Deadly Descent (Full Episode) |date=2019-09-01 |publisher=YouTube}}

2017{{cite news| url=https://www.europapress.es/galicia/noticia-tripulacion-helicoptero-pesca-recibe-maximo-reconocimiento-ambito-aviacion-civil-20170401130957.html |title=La tripulación del helicóptero Pesca 2 recibe el "máximo reconocimiento" en el ámbito de la aviación civil |access-date=2 October 2023 |newspaper = Europa Press Galicia |date=1 April 2017}}

| Carlos Ferreira, Philip Andre

| David Abad

| Antonio López-Cerón, Brian Chouza, Daniel Fernández.

| Rescues of crews of MV Modern Express and [https://shipwrecklog.com/log/2016/12/20/ Gure Uxua]

| Helicopter rescues of shipwrecked crews.

References

Category:Aviation awards

Polaris Award

Past awards

See also

References