EASA to order Airbus windshield checks after Sichuan A319 blow-out in 2018

Airbus A320-family operators are set to be instructed to carry out repetitive inspections of windshield components after a main cockpit window on a Chinese A319 blew out in cruise nearly three years ago. About 40min after taking off from Chongqing for Lhasa, the Sichuan Airlines aircraft had been flying at 9,800m (32,100ft) when the first officer’s window began to crack and was then blasted from its cockpit frame. The aircraft, about 2.2nm west of waypoint MIKOS on airway B213, depressurised from its cabin altitude of 6,272ft. Inquiries by the Civil Aviation Administration of China concluded that external water vapour probably infiltrated the windshield’s seal, as a result of damage, and over time affected the insulation of electrical wiring located at the bottom edge. This eventually led to continuous electrical discharge arcing in the lower left windshield corner, resulting in localised high temperatures which caused the glass to fracture, weakening it until it could not withstand the differential air pressure between the cockpit interior and the external atmosphere. Story has more.<br/>