A300 flight crew experiences windshield arcing during climbout; followed quickly by ECAM warning for...

Narrative:

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.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: 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.

Narrative: 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.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	1062692
Time
Date	201301
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 6500 Flight Crew Type 209
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

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.