RICHARD DE CRESPIGNY, AM
Pilot
The hero pilot who safely landed an Airbus 380 in Singapore after its engines had failed is now leading a global crusade to improve flight safety. Captain Richard de Crespigny has been awarded an AM for his service to the aviation industry, particularly in his work on flight safety. 
Despite his heavy lecturing diary (this Australia Day he is speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society in Montreal), and a second book on the way (QF32 was a bestseller), Captain de Crespigny remains an active pilot for Qantas, flying 900 hours a year as an A380 captain.
"I'm loving every day flying the best aircraft in the world for the best airline in the world," he says.
He doesn't regard himself as the man who saved QF32 and says that it had always been a team effort. What his profile since the incident has achieved, he says, is to give him a platform where he can help and give back.
"I am doing it for safety. I am touring many countries giving many presentations to aviation groups as technology changes and being safe today you can't assume that you are safe tomorrow.
"I am also giving back in terms of assisting and helping charities."
He is patron of Disabled Winter Sport Australia and the Uiver DC-2 Memorial Trust, restoring the historic aircraft at Albury airport.
Other roles include visiting lecturer at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security and ambassador for STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. "I am passionate [about] trying to further STEM so that we can adapt, or we will be left behind. There will be machines replacing humans in many jobs over the next 20 years and we have to be ahead of that."
Of his Australia Day appointment he says: " This was the most wonderful surprise and I am very honoured to get it. It also gives me more energy to continue supporting great charities and to further my discussions on safety."