An erj-190 captain reported his windshield cracked after window heat failure produced a small fire f...

Narrative:

While cruising at 15;000 ft at 300 KTS we heard a loud 'bang' noise. Looked up and the captain's windscreen had cracks throughout the whole pane. A small electrical fire could be seen in the lower left hand side of the window where the wires for window heat had obviously shorted out. I immediately pulled the power back to idle to slow the aircraft and simultaneously told the first officer to call ATC and declare an emergency; which he promptly did. I then told him to get the QRH and look up the EICAS message we had for '#1 window heater fail;' which he did. We also requested a clearance down to 4;000 ft with a heading for direct to the airport; which again was granted by ATC. After approximately a 10-15 minutes flight from the time the window cracked; we successfully landed from a visual approach and taxied to gate with no further problems. The window failed either because of a bird strike (which I don't think it was) or the window; for unknown reason; failed. I felt the inside of the window and it was smooth; so the failure was either on the outside and inner panes; or one or the other of the two.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ERJ-190 Captain reported his windshield cracked after window heat failure produced a small fire from a presumed short. An emergency was declared and a safe landing ensued.

Narrative: While cruising at 15;000 FT at 300 KTS we heard a loud 'bang' noise. Looked up and the Captain's windscreen had cracks throughout the whole pane. A small electrical fire could be seen in the lower left hand side of the window where the wires for window heat had obviously shorted out. I immediately pulled the power back to idle to slow the aircraft and simultaneously told the First Officer to call ATC and declare an emergency; which he promptly did. I then told him to get the QRH and look up the EICAS message we had for '#1 Window Heater Fail;' which he did. We also requested a clearance down to 4;000 FT with a heading for direct to the airport; which again was granted by ATC. After approximately a 10-15 minutes flight from the time the window cracked; we successfully landed from a visual approach and taxied to gate with no further problems. The window failed either because of a bird strike (which I don't think it was) or the window; for unknown reason; failed. I felt the inside of the window and it was smooth; so the failure was either on the outside and inner panes; or one or the other of the two.

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	973640
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 190/195 ER&LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

An erj-190 captain reported his windshield cracked after window heat failure produced a small fire from a presumed short. An emergency was declared and a safe landing ensued.