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.
| 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 Airlines 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 | |||
| 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 | ||||
| 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 by a paranoia panic attacked person | |
| Captain Jason M Dahl | United 93 | 9/11 attacks | ||||
| Captain Victor Saracini | FO Michael Horrocks | United 175 | ||||
| Captain John Ogonowski | FO Thomas McGuinness Jr. | American 11 | ||||
| Captain Charles Burlingame | FO David Charlesbois | American 77 | ||||
| 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 J 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 stuck at high thrust setting[1] [2] | ||
| 2017[3] | Carlos Ferreira, Philip Andre | David Abad | Antonio López-Cerón, Brian Chouza, Daniel Fernández. | Rescues of crews of MV Modern Express and Gure Uxua | Helicopter rescues of shipwrecked crews. |