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Good old duct tape

True story:

Waiting in concourse to fly from Philadelphia to Atlanta one stormy Friday late afternoon after being in Philly all week for an audit. Inbound plane from Atlanta arrives at gate to deplane, be cleaned and head back south. Had been thru a hail storm between Atlanta and Philly and sustained a multiple-cracked windshield. Intercom message said the southbound flight would be delayed for repairs, but did not state what kind of repairs or how long. After about an hour delay, the boarding procedure began. As we passed by the cockpit to board, we watched maintenance personnel both outside the plane and inside the cockpit placing duct tape on the cracked windshield while heavy rain is falling. As disconcerting as this was to us as passengers, they continued for another 30 minutes or so to repair the windshield. Believe it or not after another few minutes, the doors were closed and we taxied out to get in line to depart. After another 45 minutes in line waiting for our take-off instructions, we were told that we would be going back to the gate, the flight was cancelled and we would be put up for the night if necessary. As we de-planed by the cockpit, we saw where the duct tape had begun peeling off the rain-soaked windshield and the glue backing was a mess. One of the passengers next to me asked the crew did they really believe that duct tape would have held the windshield safely together with the air pressure at 35K to 40K feet and the reply was "yes, if the windshield had not been so wet". Thank you Lord for the heavy rain that night in Philadelphia that kept us grounded.
They should have watch Myth Busters and applied it dry. Hold an umbrella over the windshield section and dry it first. You'd've been fine then. :boink:
It's probably the 600-700 mph that would be the bigger issue.
Anyone remember Airport '77 (I think it was, where a small plane crashed into the cockpit, sucking the pilot out)?
 
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