A crj-200 captain reported a cockpit window shattered during flight. After descending and reducing a...

Narrative:

While in cruise; my windscreen started to arc and flash. A traveling crack had developed on the outer screen. My first officer and I recognized the issue and began planning for the window to break. After a minute or so; the screen shattered. The break was on the outermost layer. We determined it to be prudent to descend slowly and reduce airspeed. We didn't want to create any more pressures on the compromised glass. Also; we didn't want to turn a relatively benign situation into a hurried and unsafe situation. Along our travel; we picked out good landing spots in the direction of our destination in case the situation worsened. ATC was alerted to our situation and priority routing was given. We landed the plane at our original destination. It proved to be the quickest in terms of time with our descent restrictions. Also; it had the best emergency services and clearest runways and lowest winds of the choices along the way.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-200 Captain reported a cockpit window shattered during flight. After descending and reducing airspeed; a successful landing was accomplished at the destination airport.

Narrative: While in Cruise; my windscreen started to arc and flash. A traveling crack had developed on the outer screen. My First Officer and I recognized the issue and began planning for the window to break. After a minute or so; the screen shattered. The break was on the outermost layer. We determined it to be prudent to descend slowly and reduce airspeed. We didn't want to create any more pressures on the compromised glass. Also; we didn't want to turn a relatively benign situation into a hurried and unsafe situation. Along our travel; we picked out good landing spots in the direction of our destination in case the situation worsened. ATC was alerted to our situation and priority routing was given. We landed the plane at our original destination. It proved to be the quickest in terms of time with our descent restrictions. Also; it had the best emergency services and clearest runways and lowest winds of the choices along the way.

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	1507432
Time
Date	201712
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

A crj-200 captain reported a cockpit window shattered during flight. After descending and reducing airspeed; a successful landing was accomplished at the destination airport.