One of my best friends is a King Air Pilot and was flying back to home base at FL260 today when BAM this happened. He declared an Emergency and landed looking through a half inch peice of glass. Needless to say I am glad he is alright and am very impressed at his skills.

Amazing outcome...

Amazing outcome...

I know, and he seems so calm about it. Even posting the pics on his facebook

wow! He must have some serious skills.So why did that happen?

Glad he's safe! but wouldn't it have been safer to move over into the right seat and fly from there? Looked like the right window was ok?

Amazing that aviation window glass can have that cracking pattern to the point where you can not see through it at all, I would think they would do something to combat that...Glad your friend is alright!

It happens more often then you think.Most stories I have heard you just jump to the other side if you are the only pilot. If there is another pilot there then you become the non flying pilot and the other one now becomes the flying pilot.

So how much are laminated screens for GA and Commercial twins?I haven't seen this happening to a car for years...I would be also asking myself why he didn't fly from the right seat... glad the incident didn't become a serious event...Any ideas what caused it? Temperature? Doesn't look "red" enough to be a bird strike...Andrew

That crack pattern is indicative of the cracking of the non-structural outer layer. If there had been one long crack like what you would often seen in your house window or car windshield, then he would have had to be concerned because that would be indicative of a cracked inner structural layer. These types of window failures are common and often caused by faulty windshield heating or construction.

Glad he's safe! but wouldn't it have been safer to move over into the right seat and fly from there? Looked like the right window was ok?

I asked him about that. He said that Firstly he needed to Loose ALT incase of decompression. then he had 6 pax none pilots. He said that to move over to right would have been hard becasue the right side controls did not couple to Autopilot and he was in IMC conditions the whole time.G

and he was in IMC conditions the whole time.G

No kidding, talk about zero vis!

He said that to move over to right would have been hard becasue the right side controls did not couple to Autopilot

That doesn't make any sense. Why do the flight controls need to couple to the autopilot?

Yeah, doesn't make much sense, there is but one autopilot and you can engage it either from the left or right seat, not sure what controls have to do with it.

Yeah, doesn't make much sense, there is but one autopilot and you can engage it either from the left or right seat, not sure what controls have to do with it.

What he may have meant was that he didn't want to fly from the right side since the autopilot only coupled to left side instrumentation. But that really seems like an insignificant reason to not leave the left side station if you truly felt that there was real physical risk to sit there.

...since the autopilot only coupled to left side instrumentation.

OK, that makes a bit more sense.