Please forgive my ignorance here, but what is wrong with the aicraft in this picture? (Also, as a newbie I might not be able to get the picture to show up correctly.)

See, I knew it wouldn't show up. I will just point to it then. It's the Air France CRJ in the "most popular" photos area. Says This "is what happens when you are taxiing behind and very close to an Iberia B747-400."

I cannot tell what is wrong.

KAUST

[Edited 2004-08-29 00:38:46]

I know whats wrong with it. It's invisible, I can't see it

Yeah yeah yeah....just don't say you haven't been warned haha.

The windscreen is damaged... not sure if that is something likely to happen when ur behind a 74

Most likely stirred up lose gravel on the runway and onto this plane in question. Same thing as when you drive behind a dump truck on the freeway and it loses a rock or two onto your car and cracks the windshield.

You mean this one?

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Photo © José Ramón Valero - IBERIAN SPOTTERS

look at the Windows on the cockpit. Looks like some scratches on it from gravel

I think the windshield is cracked into pieces yet stayed nicely intact.

Well the pictures comment talks about taxing too close to a 747. My guess would be it cracked due to the heat from the exhaust.

Actually ive seen this happen before on one of skywest's Crj's, it was the windshield directly in front of the F/O. As I recall they said it just randomly started cracking inflight, I wonder how many times this has happened?

Probrably unlikely but...

Jetblast??

Please dont try to bite my head of if i am wrong  

TupolevTu154

Just looks like its cracked in flight. I know this is not exactly a rare occurance, one of our resident pilots shared pictures from his recent experience of having the windshield shatter like this in flight. Apparently there is no real danger if it happens, and the aircraft can continue to fly normally until it has reached its destination where obviously it needs to be replaced.

The windshield has started to delaminate. This can be caused by leaving the windshield heat on after landing but I have never heard of it happening while sitting behind a 747, but I guess that is possible.

It doesn't look like a rock hit from the outside, and I don't buy the explanation of engine heat from a 747....That CRJ would be airborne before the window would break.

Runaway window heat thermostat is my guess, not that I know a damm thing about CRJ's. But the local collage had a 747 window that was cracked for that reason.

That isn't delamination. One of the panes is cracked. Could be impact damage amongst other things, such as the window heat problem.

Looks like the side windscreen is shattered. It is possible that they hit a hailstorm at high speed (and crosswind at that), which can make the windscreen shatter. However, this would have happened at an altitude in which decompression would not be a factor.

I have seen this on another post on a.net...I just have to find the picture. It was front shot of an aircraft that had its forward windscreen shatter due to hail on the nose.

One never knows...

The windscreen has cracked. Normally this happens in flight, I doubt it happened because of following a 747 (possible, though, I suppose). In the Dash-8 we had this happen a lot. It was due to an accumulation of water in the frame under the window, which would freeze at altitude and crack the windscreen. We put in drains in the frame, and the cracking stopped.

It's your average windshield heat damage, not exhaust heat from another aircraft.

Yawn..... Very common. When you work line maintenance, you'll see damage like this every few weeks.

I doubt it was caused by any sort of impact.