Kudos to the crew for trying to clean the windshield @ 8500 feet and ~200 knots, but I don't know how effective that would have been anyway.

I once drove through a thick locust swarm in the Kimberley region of Australia and my car was covered in a thick bug splat paste in very short order, to the extent that I lost forward visibility and had to pull over. Even after the swarm passed and I got out to try and clean the windshield by hand using a towel, the 'paste' just smeared thickly and I needed to scrape it off with a plastic knife and some water.

And that was stationary and standing outside the car on the side of a road. I can only guess at how futile it would be leaning out a window with one arm holding a (presumably) paper towel in blasting wind.