Look what was waiting for us at work a few weeks ago!
The outer layer on this 737 windscreen cracked during cruise. Whilst the screen is still structurally safe it must be a bit disconcerting for the captain to have this happen a few feet in front of his face.
The funny thing was that the very next shift we had another one do exactly the same thing on the ground.
Rgds Cking
By: atr42 - 23rd April 2008 at 19:21
Yeah not that uncommon. We had the same happen on a 737-200 on the way down to Izmir back in ’95. We’d just taken a pax up to the FD for a visit when it happen. One seriously frightened punter came back out!
By: Homer09001 - 22nd April 2008 at 23:50
ha a cracked windscreen, that nothing, we had a 737 un knowingly fly from spain to England, with a hole cause by the baggage lads in spain, wasen’t untill it arrive and our baggage lads started unloading the rear that someone noticed it!!
i have purposly not mentioned airline names or airports.
By: ianatkin - 21st April 2008 at 10:55
No there was no link. Both screens had been on the aircraft for some time and it is un likely that they would have been changed by the same crew. Most screens are changed due to condition rather than being time ex. I have seen this kind of failure several times on various different aircraft types so it’s not unusual. The other common fault is delamination between the layers. This is where the joints between the layers become “Un glued”. This does not affect the structural integrity of the window, just makes it difficult to see through. There are quite large limits of delamination allowed but if it affects the crew’s vision then the screen has to be changed.
Rgds Cking
Thanks for the background 🙂
See if he’d gone to Autoglass when he first saw it going he might not have had to pay his excess 😉
By: Cking - 21st April 2008 at 10:40
No there was no link. Both screens had been on the aircraft for some time and it is un likely that they would have been changed by the same crew. Most screens are changed due to condition rather than being time ex. I have seen this kind of failure several times on various different aircraft types so it’s not unusual. The other common fault is delamination between the layers. This is where the joints between the layers become “Un glued”. This does not affect the structural integrity of the window, just makes it difficult to see through. There are quite large limits of delamination allowed but if it affects the crew’s vision then the screen has to be changed.
Rgds Cking
By: ianatkin - 20th April 2008 at 16:26
Do you think there’s a link between the events, e.g. windows from the same batch or fitted by the same team?
Ian
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April 20, 2008 at 4:10 pm