Narrative:

Climbing through FL320; a large spread out crack developed on the captain's forward windshield. We notified ATC of the crack and that we were maintaining cabin pressure. We declared an emergency and requested a descent to 10;000 feet and a return to our departure airport. We ran the window damage checklist in the QRH. It was the captain's leg but; because the crack was on his side; he elected to have me perform the landing. The captain handled the communications with the flight attendants; the company; and the passengers. I flew the airplane and handled ATC comminications. We set up for the ILS xxr in ZZZ and performed a normal approach and landing. We were met by emergency vehicles; but we did not require assistance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The flight crew of a B757-200 declared an emergency and returned to their departure airport after the Captain's windshield shattered climbing through FL320.

Narrative: Climbing through FL320; a large spread out crack developed on the Captain's forward windshield. We notified ATC of the crack and that we were maintaining cabin pressure. We declared an emergency and requested a descent to 10;000 feet and a return to our departure airport. We ran the window damage checklist in the QRH. It was the Captain's leg but; because the crack was on his side; he elected to have me perform the landing. The Captain handled the communications with the flight attendants; the Company; and the passengers. I flew the airplane and handled ATC comminications. We set up for the ILS XXR in ZZZ and performed a normal approach and landing. We were met by emergency vehicles; but we did not require assistance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.