Mary Dohey

Mary Dohey, CV (22 September 1933 – 12 June 2017) was a Canadian airline flight attendant who was the first living person to receive the award of the Cross of Valour, Canada's highest award for bravery, for her conduct during the hijacking of an Air Canada DC-8 aircraft in 1971.

Dohey was the third recipient of the Cross of Valour and the first to receive the prize herself, as two previous awards were both posthumous. In December 1975 she was awarded the Cross of Valour for bravery; John Joseph Arpin, the purser, received the Star of Courage and the aircraft Captain Vernon Ehman the Medal of Bravery. The hijacker threatened to take the lives of the crew and all the passengers on board the airplane. Although continually threatened with the gun, Dohey continuing speaking with the aggressor and succeeded in discouraging him from undertaking violent measures which would have killed many people. When the aircraft was diverted and landed in Great Falls, Montana, she was able to persuade the hijacker to allow all the passengers and part of the crew, including herself, to disembark. when the plane landed, he was given a briefcase with only $50,000 , which was unknown to the hijacker. Dohey had many relatives spread out throughout Canada and spent a number of summers during her time off with her brother Harry and his family in Holyrood. She had been a resident of Mississauga, Ontario since 1967.

Dohey died at the age of 83 on June 12, 2017. There is a merit award named in her honour, administered by the Friends of Cape St. Mary.