Flight crew reported Captain's windshield shattered in cruise due to a malfunctioning windshield heat system. The flight crew requested priority handling and diverted to make a precautionary landing.
Synopsis
Flight crew reported Captain's windshield shattered in cruise due to a malfunctioning windshield heat system. The flight crew requested priority handling and diverted to make a precautionary landing.
Narrative
We were at FL350 in between ZZZZZ and ZZZZZ1 when I noticed a bright flickering in my windshield. I took a closer look at it and saw it was the wire in the top of the windshield glowing and pulsating from bright to dim and back continuously. I showed it to the FO (First Officer) and then the glowing traveled to the left burning wire. The glowing went out. About a second or 2 later the wire lit back up and had smoke coming out of it. Now it traveled to the right and down into the windshield and then glowing went out while simultaneously shattering the left windshield. At this point I stated; 'My Aircraft' and told the FO to [request priority handling] and tell them we need an immediate descent. After we started down ATC asked where we wanted to go and just having passed ZZZ we told them we wanted to go to ZZZ. They gave us vectors for ZZZ and the FO went into the QRH. We followed the QRH procedure and determined that it was the outer pane. At this point; after seeing the glowing wires and smoke in the cockpit I determined that the safest course of action was to get the plane on the ground. We landed in ZZZ without any further problems and were followed to the gate by the fire trucks. Everyone lived.I don't think there were any factors that played a role in this event other than maybe old wires. Putting new wires into the windshield heating systems may prevent this.
Second reporter narrative
ZZZ1-ZZZ2. FL350 Cruise just past ZZZ. Noticed a flash of light out CA (Captain)'s front window. CA said he saw glow and smoke on upper windshield. CA said let's go to ZZZ. As we were preparing to divert CA's front windshield shattered along with more glowing from heating element. [Requested priority handling] with Center. Ran QRH for shattered windshield. Turned off L Window Heat as we suspected the heating element was failing. Ran Normal checklists for visual landing on XXR in ZZZ. Requested ARFF. Taxi to gate uneventful. L Window Heating element failure. Opinion only. Simply a mechanical failure.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.