The flight crew of a B757-200 declared an emergency and returned to their departure airport after th...

Narrative:

Climbing through FL320; a large spread out crack developed on the captain's forward windshield. We notified ATC of the crack and that we were maintaining cabin pressure. We declared an emergency and requested a descent to 10;000 feet and a return to our departure airport. We ran the window damage checklist in the QRH. It was the captain's leg but; because the crack was on his side; he elected to have me perform the landing. The captain handled the communications with the flight attendants; the company; and the passengers. I flew the airplane and handled ATC comminications. We set up for the ILS xxr in ZZZ and performed a normal approach and landing. We were met by emergency vehicles; but we did not require assistance.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The flight crew of a B757-200 declared an emergency and returned to their departure airport after the Captain's windshield shattered climbing through FL320.

Narrative: Climbing through FL320; a large spread out crack developed on the Captain's forward windshield. We notified ATC of the crack and that we were maintaining cabin pressure. We declared an emergency and requested a descent to 10;000 feet and a return to our departure airport. We ran the window damage checklist in the QRH. It was the Captain's leg but; because the crack was on his side; he elected to have me perform the landing. The Captain handled the communications with the flight attendants; the Company; and the passengers. I flew the airplane and handled ATC comminications. We set up for the ILS XXR in ZZZ and performed a normal approach and landing. We were met by emergency vehicles; but we did not require assistance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1200119
Time
Date	201409
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Person 2
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

The flight crew of a B757-200 declared an emergency and returned to their departure airport after the captain's windshield shattered climbing through FL320.