The reporter learned from the press conference held by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on the 25th that from 2017 to 2021, there were 254 windshield cracks in civil aviation of China, with an average of about 50 per year.
The Civil Aviation Administration said that after such a situation occurs, the flight crew will deal with it according to the standard disposal procedures and take the best measures to ensure flight safety.
According to the news, on the evening of February 19, Juneyao Airlines Co.Ltd(603885) flight ho1231 from Shanghai Hongqiao to Chengdu took off at 19:34. Due to a large cobweb crack in the windshield, the flight plan was temporarily changed and diverted to Wuhan Tianhe Airport.
Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration, introduced here that the windshield system of transport aircraft usually includes two windshields on the front of the cockpit, a fixed window and a sliding window on the left and right sides, and a windshield heating system. The windshield and side windows of Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 aircraft are composed of three layers of glass. Among them, the outer layer does not bear structural force and its main function is anti-collision. The middle and inner layers are the layers bearing structural forces. If any one of the middle and inner layers is kept intact, the aircraft can maintain normal internal and external pressure difference to ensure flight safety. People familiar with aviation know that the windshield system of aircraft in operation is sometimes affected by many factors such as the impact of birds, hail and other foreign objects, the arc discharge of heating system and so on, resulting in cracks in the glass, so the windshield glass cracks have a certain probability of occurrence.
Zhu Tao stressed that the fixed window on the left side of the cockpit of Juneyao Airlines Co.Ltd(603885) passenger 320 aircraft reported by the media this time is a single-layer crack in the middle glass, which can fly to the destination normally according to the manual, but the crew decided to alternate and land safely at Wuhan airport in order to be safer, stable and reliable. The 7-minute descent of more than 4300 meters (600 meters / minute) reported on the Internet is the usual descent rate for normal flights, without any danger. At present, the specific reasons are under in-depth investigation, and the exact conclusions will be published as soon as possible.
Zhu Tao said that at present, the overall security situation of China’s civil aviation has remained stable and controllable. As of February 19, 2022, the continuous safe flight time of civil aviation transportation in China has exceeded 100 million hours, creating the best new performance of safe development in the history of civil aviation in China and the best continuous safe flight record in the history of civil aviation in the world.
