Narrative:

Climbing through 10000 ft chime was given and flow completed. In that process the windshield heat was turned on. Through 12500 ft light smoke and odor started coming from first officer's windshield. It became heavy; severe smoke quickly. It is not on a checklist but I turned the windshield heat off and the smoke continued and worsened. All procedures were started and with masks on contacted ATC for immediate descent and diversion back to ZZZ. It was the first officer's leg so he continued the flight and ATC communications. I ran all checklists; contacted flight attendants; made a PA to the passengers and was contacted twice by dispatch as to why we had turned around. Cell call dropped off the first time and the second time they asked what we were doing and they asked if we would like to talk to maintenance. I responded with a resounding no and advised them as to our direction and intention. They agreed and contacted the emergency based crews and advised ZZZ operations. The smoke subsided turning final. We landed; turned off the taxiway and I advised the passengers. The smoke had stopped and we would have a normal deplaning at the gate. My crew did an excellent job; I commended them all. I do not think my crew; ATC or dispatch did anything wrong; or could have they done anything different; but maintenance could have. The day before it had a write up for a smoke smell in the flight deck. Typical response of 'no problem found.' two days before that the first officer's windshield was written up for icing up in flight. Maintenance in ZZZ1 did an operations check 'no problem found.' I realize I am just a dumb pilot but with those write ups in the book I advised not only the first officer but the flight attendants that this had a history and 'no problem found.' they all laughed until we hit 1;500 ft. How a windshield could possibly ice up in flight and work on the ground; you ask? Well the #8 gauge wire feeding the terminal block for the windshield when left with four turns loose acts as an open so the windshield does not work or as a small arc welder. We had the latter. The insulation had started burning while the wire was arcing to the terminal and once the wire got hot enough the fun began. Many of us have had smoke cautions and smells but only a few have had smoke. A few had some with expected seal failures on an engine which is where the checklist is designed to correct. If we have an electrical short in this airplane we have no checklist that will get it turned off before a real fire is commenced unless we are very lucky. My real gripe here is maintenance had two shots at catching this. It took almost 2 seconds to identify the screw was loose looking at the terminal block. My guess is no one even looked at it. They may have run an operations check which would show a load with the windshield heat on but no one checked the obvious. My confidence in our maintenance operation right now is as low as it can get. We have too many new mechanics who feel it has to be done in a hurry. We need to have some reality in our maintenance department before someone gets hurt. According to the ZZZ guys once I showed them the logbook and entries and the cause all one got was disgust. I understood for the check that was signed off the screws would have been checked and they obviously were not. Besides the lock washers that were missing. I would hope no one in particular gets in trouble but I would hope we and maintenance can all learn from this. Realizing I had turned off the cause of the smoke and it continued to worsen caused an uneasy feeling. I knew it was coming from the wires in that area but could not identify the actual smoking wires. These wires will smoke with intense heat until it cools down. If it gets to something else the saga will continue. Parts fail on machines all the time and we understand that. But; I as the captain; should feel confidant that the mechanics putting them in; are doing there job.callback conversation with reporter revealed the fol

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Captain reports about odor and smoke coming from the First Officer's windshield; that quickly became severe on their DeHavilland DHC-8-400; requiring an emergency return to departure airport.

Narrative: Climbing through 10000 FT chime was given and flow completed. In that process the windshield heat was turned on. Through 12500 FT light smoke and odor started coming from First Officer's windshield. It became heavy; severe smoke quickly. It is not on a checklist but I turned the windshield heat off and the smoke continued and worsened. All procedures were started and with masks on contacted ATC for immediate descent and diversion back to ZZZ. It was the First Officer's leg so he continued the flight and ATC communications. I ran all checklists; contacted Flight Attendants; made a PA to the passengers and was contacted twice by Dispatch as to why we had turned around. Cell call dropped off the first time and the second time they asked what we were doing and they asked if we would like to talk to maintenance. I responded with a resounding no and advised them as to our direction and intention. They agreed and contacted the emergency based crews and advised ZZZ OPS. The smoke subsided turning final. We landed; turned off the taxiway and I advised the passengers. The smoke had stopped and we would have a normal deplaning at the gate. My crew did an excellent job; I commended them all. I do not think my crew; ATC or Dispatch did anything wrong; or could have they done anything different; but maintenance could have. The day before it had a write up for a smoke smell in the flight deck. Typical response of 'no problem found.' Two days before that the First Officer's windshield was written up for icing up in flight. Maintenance in ZZZ1 did an OPS check 'no problem found.' I realize I am just a dumb pilot but with those write ups in the book I advised not only the First Officer but the Flight Attendants that this had a history and 'no problem found.' They all laughed until we hit 1;500 FT. How a windshield could possibly ice up in flight and work on the ground; you ask? Well the #8 gauge wire feeding the terminal block for the windshield when left with four turns loose acts as an open so the windshield does not work or as a small ARC Welder. We had the latter. The insulation had started burning while the wire was arcing to the terminal and once the wire got hot enough the fun began. Many of us have had smoke cautions and smells but only a few have had smoke. A few had some with expected seal failures on an engine which is where the checklist is designed to correct. If we have an electrical short in this airplane we have no checklist that will get it turned off before a real fire is commenced unless we are very lucky. My real gripe here is maintenance had two shots at catching this. It took almost 2 seconds to identify the screw was loose looking at the terminal block. My guess is no one even looked at it. They may have run an OPS check which would show a load with the windshield heat on but no one checked the obvious. My confidence in our maintenance operation right now is as low as it can get. We have too many new mechanics who feel it has to be done in a hurry. We need to have some reality in our maintenance department before someone gets hurt. According to the ZZZ guys once I showed them the logbook and entries and the cause all one got was disgust. I understood for the check that was signed off the screws would have been checked and they obviously were not. Besides the lock washers that were missing. I would hope no one in particular gets in trouble but I would hope we and maintenance can all learn from this. Realizing I had turned off the cause of the smoke and it continued to worsen caused an uneasy feeling. I knew it was coming from the wires in that area but could not identify the actual smoking wires. These wires will smoke with intense heat until it cools down. If it gets to something else the saga will continue. Parts fail on machines all the time and we understand that. But; I as the Captain; should feel confidant that the mechanics putting them in; are doing there job.Callback conversation with Reporter revealed the fol

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.