A300
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 6500; Flight Crew Type 209
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft
While climbing through roughly 12;000 FT I noticed arching in the lower right hand corner of my forward windshield. As I informed the Captain of the issue we got an ECAM message referring to an overheat in the windshield. The Captain reached up and promptly turned off the heat. About 2 seconds later a loud pop occurred and the windshield cracked all over. Not knowing the true state of the windshield I transferred control of the jet to the Captain. I lowered my seat all the way. We declared an emergency and requested vectors back. Upon arrival I observed a hole the diameter of a BB on the outside of the windshield. The depth was unknown. Going forward it would be beneficial to have some working knowledge of what I was looking at. This windshield did not behave at all like previous jets I have flown. I now know that with just cracking on the outer panel the window is not particularly in danger of failing. I also now know that the bubbling around the area where the arcing occurred is an indicator of a compromised windshield. Knowledge like this would be useful to crews moving forward. Additionally I would like to know what a windshield with a failed inner panel looks like.
Passing about 10;000 FT in climbout the First Officer commented about windscreen arcing; followed quickly by ECAM warning for windscreen overheat; followed quickly by First Officer windscreen pane shattering. Transferred aircraft control to Captain and returned to departure airport. Noted windscreen bubbling at spot First Officer noted arcing after parking aircraft.
A300 flight crew experiences windshield arcing during climbout; followed quickly by ECAM warning for windscreen overheat; followed by the Captain turning off the heat; followed quickly by First Officer windscreen shattering. Flight returns to departure airport.