Porter cracked windshield

[Donald]

Interesting incident and outcome:

 Simon Hradecky, created Saturday, Jun 11th 2022 19:47Z, last updated Saturday, Jun 11th 2022 19:47Z

A Porter Airlines de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration C-GKQA performing flight PD-262 from St. John's,NL and Halifax,NS (Canada) with 80 people on board, was enroute at FL240 about 30 minutes into the flight when the right hand windshield cracked. The crew completed the checklists and consulted with dispatch regarding weather at both airport of origin and destination as well as fuel calculations for lower altitudes. The crew decided to continue to Halifax at reduced speed, declared PAN PAN, slowly descended to FL140 to remain out of clouds and icing conditions with the flight crew on oxygen. After about an hour the flight descended to FL100 and continued for a safe landing in Halifax.

The Canadian TSB reported the flight crew was on oxygen while descending from FL240 and maintaining FL140, the cabin crew was on portable oxygen and provided oxygen to 8 passengers initially feeling light headed. There were no injuries, and nobody needed medical attention at landing.

[Inverted2]

I’m confused, did the windshield crack or fail completely? Did the aircraft depressurize and that’s why they went on oxygen? I flew the Dash 8 series for 10 years and don’t recall the QRH directing you to depressurize the aircraft. I think it had you reduce speed, descend and keep some pressure differential to reduce stress on the glass.

[pelmet]

I’m confused, did the windshield crack or fail completely? Did the aircraft depressurize and that’s why they went on oxygen? I flew the Dash 8 series for 10 years and don’t recall the QRH directing you to depressurize the aircraft. I think it had you reduce speed, descend and keep some pressure differential to reduce stress on the glass.

Perhaps when the pressure differential was reduced, it raised the cabin altitude resulting in the passengers feeling 'light-headed'.

Or perhaps, the flight crew got the cabin crew to use oxygen as a precaution and when the passengers saw this, started feeling light-headed based on what they saw. That happens sometimes and I could give an example of the psychological effect of one thinking there is a cabin altitude issue when all is normal.

[J31]

I’m confused, did the windshield crack or fail completely? Did the aircraft depressurize and that’s why they went on oxygen? I flew the Dash 8 series for 10 years and don’t recall the QRH directing you to depressurize the aircraft. I think it had you reduce speed, descend and keep some pressure differential to reduce stress on the glass.

https://avherald.com/h?article=4fa1f34d

You depressurize. Avoid icing conditions. Interesting that they stayed at 14000 feet sucking on O2. No terrain out there to warrant being that high. Icing would not be an issue as the temperatures would be well above 0 for any approach.

If they need to stay above 10000 feet to make YHZ with sufficient fuel, there should have been a diversion to a closer airport.

Even St John's was not that bad, The departed about 5Z

METAR CYYT 010800Z 35015G21KT 5SM -RA BR OVC005 03/03 A2928 RMK SF8 SLP922=

METAR CYYT 010700Z 35016G24KT 5SM -RA BR OVC005 03/03 A2928 RMK SF8 SLP922=

METAR CYYT 010600Z 35016G25KT 8SM -RA OVC005 04/03 A2928 RMK SF8 SLP922=

SPECI CYYT 010531Z 35015G24KT 8SM -RA OVC005 04/03 A2929 RMK SF8 SLP925=

SPECI CYYT 010506Z CCA 35013G23KT 4SM -RA BR OVC004 04/03 A2930 RMK FG2SF6 SLP926=

TAF CYYT 010540Z 0106/0206 35012G22KT 1SM -DZ BR OVC003
TEMPO 0106/0116 6SM BR SCT003 OVC010 FM011600 33010KT
5SM -RA -DZ BR OVC008
TEMPO 0116/0123 P6SM NSW OVC012 FM012300 33010KT 4SM -RA
-DZ BR OVC006
PROB30 0123/0206 3/4SM -RA BR BKN003 OVC006 RMK NXT FCST
BY 011200Z=

[Donald]

Not to mention other options like YJT or YQY.

I wonder if the full load introduced commercial pressure into the decision making?

[pelmet]

I’m confused, did the windshield crack or fail completely? Did the aircraft depressurize and that’s why they went on oxygen? I flew the Dash 8 series for 10 years and don’t recall the QRH directing you to depressurize the aircraft. I think it had you reduce speed, descend and keep some pressure differential to reduce stress on the glass.

https://avherald.com/h?article=4fa1f34d

You depressurize.

Partial of full depressurization? Usually pressurized airliners go down to 10,000 feet(terrain permitting) for a depressurization scenario.

[airway]

Q400 QRH for a cracked windshield says to descend to 14000' or below if possible, and have a cabin diff of 3 psi or lower. No need to depressurize in cruise, but you do have to depressurize for landing. I suspect that if the aircraft is at 14000' or below at 3 psi, the cabin altitude would be at 10000' or below. No need for O2 at 10000' or below.

[pelmet]

Q400 QRH for a cracked windshield says to descend to 14000' or below if possible, and have a cabin diff of 3 psi or lower. No need to depressurize in cruise, but you do have to depressurize for landing. I suspect that if the aircraft is at 14000' or below at 3 psi, the cabin altitude would be at 10000' or below. No need for O2 at 10000' or below.

Difficult to know what happened. Perhaps the crew decided to have the flight attendants wear masks as a precaution and the sight of that could have made passengers feel light-headed when they would not have felt that way if they had not seen the masks being used.

I read this separate incident report recently and wondered if it was just a feeling by the crew based on indications. One can't be sure without the full story:

C-FRQW, a Jazz Aviation LP Embraer 170-200SU was conducting flight 8944 from Montreal/Pierre
Elliott Trudeau Intl. (CYUL), QC to Newark Liberty Intl. (KEWR), NJ. During climb through 16000
feet, flight crew noticed cabin pressure was not increasing nor decreasing. Also, Flight crew
started to feel symptoms of hypoxia. As a precaution, Flight crew donned oxygen masks,
performed a emergency descent to 9000 feet and communicated with ATC. Flight did not declare
an emergency and then diverted to CYUL at 9000 feet where it landed without further incident.
Maintenance did not find fault leading to this event.