dispatch with cracked window
That is perfectly leagle depending of what is mentioned in the MEL and ofcourse depending of the magnitude of the crack etc, that will be determined by the engineers or in some cases with photon taken and sent to manufactor of the aircraft and they could potentionally make a release to service or release for ferry flight to homebase etc all depending of the situation. But ofcourse at most cases the release to service will be without windowheating and that could be the same as ground the aircraft depending of the weathercondition during flight since no known ice condition is allowed.
And in most cases also the max allowed spd of the aircraft will be affected. This procedure have been used many times to be able to get an aircraft back to homebase for window replacement if it is difficult to perform the repair at the outstation.
But at this specific event it happened in FLT and then it depends of what conditions are related to that aircraft and how serious of a crack the commander thinks it is and decides from there and what kind of weather is expecting during FLT and at destination.
Regards
1011