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Cathay Pacific Pilots Receive IFALPA's Polaris Award


PANAMA CITY, Panama--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Hong Kong Airline Pilots Association (HKALPA), in conjunction with the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, is proud to announce that IFALPA's Polaris Award was presented to two of its members, Captain Malcolm Waters and First Officer David Hayhoe, at the IFALPA Annual Conference in Panama on 29 March 2014.

The Polaris Award is the highest honor associated with civil aviation awarded by IFALPA. It is presented to airline crews in recognition for acts of exceptional airmanship, heroic action, or a combination of these two attributes.

On 13 April 2010, Captain Waters and First Officer Hayhoe, in a twin engine A330, were faced with a totally unexpected inflight emergency involving loss of power on one engine and degraded power on the other. In addition, they had no control over the amount of thrust produced by the operating engine and indications on the flight deck gave no clue as to what the problem was or how to resolve it.

Since this was a completely unexpected situation, they had little guidance from existing procedures or checklists. Instead, drawing on their piloting experience, skill, and judgment, they safely landed their aircraft and its 322 passengers and crew. This was accomplished in spite of an approach and landing in Hong Kong that, by necessity, was 110 miles per hour above the normal landing speed.

The cause of the loss of power in both engines was discovered to be fuel, contaminated with seawater, that had been uploaded from the airport's fuel hydrant system at Surabaya, the flight's departure point.

Throughout the emergency, they acted with calmness and professionalism, keeping the cabin crew, passengers, and ATC aware of their situation whilst handling a complex and unforeseen emergency, and piloting the aircraft in a critical situation.

As a direct result of Captain Waters' and First Officer Hayhoe's professionalism and skill, the flight ended with a safe landing from a situation which could easily have produced a far worse outcome.

Presenting the award, IFALPA President Captain Don Wykoff praised Malcolm and Dave in undoubtedly saving many lives and acting in a manner to which all professional pilots could aspire.

HKALPA was proud to sponsor the attendance of these two officers at the awards ceremony in Panama City.

HKALPA, representing more than 2,500 pilots at 4 airlines in Hong Kong, is the representative body to the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association (IFALPA) for pilots employed by Hong Kong based airlines. It is a professional, non-commercial association with the mandate to promote flight safety, professionalism and the interests of its members. HKALPA represents members in both professional and technical matters within Hong Kong and internationally through our membership of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA). Our Technical & Safety Committee (TASC) monitors and acts, both at local and international level, on technical matters that could affect pilots in the safe execution of their professional duties.