An A320 first officer's front windshield outer pane cracked while cruising at FL360. The outer layer...

Narrative:

While at a cruise altitude of 36000'; and approximately half way through our flight; my first officer noticed a crack in his forward window. As we examined it; it was continuing to increase in length. It then started to create an air tunnel in which there seemed to be fluid. About this time we noticed that it started to develop a small (maybe an inch) electrical arch; and then we heard a loud bang; and the outer pane of the window shattered. This all happened very quickly; and had it not been for the keen eyes of the first officer; we would have had no idea why this happened. We contacted dispatch and had them conference in maintenance control. After discussion with our maintenance control and referencing our flight manual; we determined that it was indeed the outer pane that had shattered; and that there was only one flight restriction which would not be prohibitive to continuing the flight to our destination. Upon further consultation with dispatch and maintenance; it was agreed that all parties involved were comfortable with the flight still being able to be conducted in a safe manner; and that no need to deviate was necessary. All sops and flight manual procedures followed. The rest of the flight was uneventful and a normal landing was made at our destination.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 First Officer's front windshield outer pane cracked while cruising at FL360. The outer layer was non structural so the flight slowed and descended; as per the QRH; then continued to its destination.

Narrative: While at a cruise altitude of 36000'; and approximately half way through our flight; my First Officer noticed a crack in his forward window. As we examined it; it was continuing to increase in length. It then started to create an air tunnel in which there seemed to be fluid. About this time we noticed that it started to develop a small (maybe an inch) electrical arch; and then we heard a loud bang; and the outer pane of the window shattered. This all happened very quickly; and had it not been for the keen eyes of the First Officer; we would have had no idea why this happened. We contacted Dispatch and had them conference in Maintenance Control. After discussion with our Maintenance Control and referencing our flight manual; we determined that it was indeed the outer pane that had shattered; and that there was only one flight restriction which would not be prohibitive to continuing the flight to our destination. Upon further consultation with Dispatch and Maintenance; it was agreed that all parties involved were comfortable with the flight still being able to be conducted in a safe manner; and that no need to deviate was necessary. All SOPs and flight manual procedures followed. The rest of the flight was uneventful and a normal landing was made at our destination.

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.

Attributes
ACN	882975
Time
Date	201004
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 18000 Flight Crew Type 5000
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 7500 Flight Crew Type 2720
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

An A320 first officer's front windshield outer pane cracked while cruising at FL360. The outer layer was non structural so the flight slowed and descended; as per the QRH; then continued to its destination.