On 6/5/2018 at 12:01 PM, Bills511 said:

Win Win. You get a nice slick haircut at the same time! 

On 6/5/2018 at 8:07 PM, Mike777 said:

Would it be possible for the pilots to put on goggles and then, at the relatively slow speed and low altitude of final approach, depressurize the aircraft, break out a small hole in front of the pilot flying so s/he could see?  I know aircraft have landed safely where the windshield was shattered on one side (in one incident as I recall, one of the pilots was sucked halfway out of the cockpit but pulled back in).

Mike

There's no need for goggles if you fly through volcanic ash, because it will sandblast the windscreens for you and make them opaque, as well as damage the engines and electronics. This happened to a BA Jumbo many years ago whilst en-route to Perth in total darkness and all four engines ran down. The ash cloud did not show up on radar and apparently there was no QRH procedure for volcanic ash contamination and avoidance at the time, so the crew had their hands full getting to grips with what the problem was and then attempting to restart the engines.  Fortunately, they managed to get all four engines going but had to shut one down during the diversion to Jakarta because it was badly damaged by the ash which had melted onto the engine blades and ruined its normal airflow. The crew did remarkably well under the circumstances and the Captain was able to land the aircraft manually on three engines, but apparently he had to stand up until the last minute because he could only see out of the bottom left hand corner of his No.1 window - vision out of the rest of it was totally blurred due to the sandblasting effect caused by the ash.

It is almost impossible to break the windows of a commercial jet aircraft. I shudder every time I think back to the awful image of the Pan Am Lockerbie Jumbo cockpit lying on its side in a field with the copilot's window intact.

The other accident you refer to was to a BA 1-11 Captain's windscreen and the co-pilot landed it safely at Southampton.  The Captain went on to make a fuill recovery and returned to flying. He is reported to have said that the only reason the crew kept a tight hold of him was because he had his wallet in his back pocket!

Bertie G     

Edited June 6, 20187 yr by berts
typo