Captain reported an Engine Stall indication and a subsequent roll back to idle and relight. The flight crew chose to divert back to the departure airport.
Synopsis
Captain reported an Engine Stall indication and a subsequent roll back to idle and relight. The flight crew chose to divert back to the departure airport.
Narrative
After leveling at 350 we experienced some moderate turbulence and as it smoothed out we heard an ecam chime. We had an Eng 1 stall indication and as the First Officer was to begin ecam actions the engine relight and the memo went away. Approx 30 seconds later the engine rolled back to flight idle and the memo reappeared. The engine then relight and began to spool back up. We told ATC we were having engine problems and requested a decent to 280 and vectors towards ZZZ which was 50 miles behind us while we assessed the problem. At this point both engines and all systems were working fine but my First Officer and I agreed safest course of action was to land in ZZZ. First Officer notified ZZZ Maintenance and Operations and we sent an acars to dispatch. I informed the flight attendants that all systems were normal and as a precaution we would go to ZZZ and to prepare for arrival. I made an announcement to the passengers stating the same. We were vectored for the visual and performed all checklists for an overweight landing. We started the APU for added to around performance in case of engine failure. Landing was normal and we taxied in without event. First Officer and Flight Attendants did a great job taking care of everything. I could always communicate better and I'm thankful that my team was trained to the highest level
Second reporter narrative
Shortly after leveling off at our cruise altitude; we encountered an isolated area of light turbulence which was almost immediately followed by an 'ENG 1 STALL' ECAM message accompanied by a rollback of our #1 Engine. As we began to process the situation and follow the ECAM actions; the #1 engine spooled back up and the ECAM message extinguished. A few seconds later; the message reappeared and the #1 engine again rolled back and lost thrust. Once again; as we began to run the ECAM action to complete the first item of reducing the thrust lever to idle thrust; the ECAM message again extinguished and the engine's thrust returned. Captain [Name] indicated that he wanted to descend and to [request priority handling]; at which time I briefly communicated our situation; [requested priority handling] and received a clearance to FL240. As we began our descent; we discussed our options regarding continuation of the flight or a possible diversion. We had no further abnormal indications from the engine and everything seemed to be operating normally at that point. After a brief discussion; we determined that the most conservative decision was to land as soon as practical. At that point we were approximately 80 miles southeast of ZZZ; so we made the decision to divert to ZZZ. I briefly communicated our decision to maintenance in ZZZ; while Captain notified our crew and passengers of our plan and the reason for our diversion and sent an ACARS message to our Dispatcher. At some point later; ATC queried if we were still a [priority] aircraft at which time I informed them that we were no longer in a [priority] status but that we would be making a precautionary landing at ZZZ. We received vectors for a visual approach on XXL with no delays. Since we had no further issues with our #1 engine; we did no further troubleshooting; but discussed our plan if we were to have any additional problems during our approach or in the event of a missed approach. During our descent since we determined we would be approximately 4000 lbs overweight for landing; we reviewed the QRH items for an overweight landing; and determined that a normal flaps full approach with a gentle touchdown would be the best course of action and that we would have a comfortable performance margin on XXL at ZZZ. The APU was started to provide bleed air prior to beginning our approach as directed by the overweight landing checklist. Captain made an uneventful landing with a very smooth touchdown and rollout; and we taxied into the Gate without any further issues
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.