B-757 crew reported a cabin door malfunction during cruise while experiencing turbulence on an ETOPS flight. The crew returned to the departure airport and landed overweight.
Synopsis
B-757 crew reported a cabin door malfunction during cruise while experiencing turbulence on an ETOPS flight. The crew returned to the departure airport and landed overweight.
Narrative
Upon arriving to the plane we learned this plane was just delivered to ZZZ from ZZZ1 where it had been in MX (Maintenance) for at least two weeks. We were told that the APU Reliability check had been done on this flight to ZZZ which then led to Release 2. Cruising at FL360 through constant light to moderate turbulence we received a call from the back that both aft door levels had popped out of their armed and locked detent. In the Flight Deck we had no indications of this. While we were still in and out of moderate turbulence the plan of action was that upon reaching smooth air; I would go to the back of the plane and lay eyes on what was going on and try to close" the doors if necessary.Before this opportunity we got a "L AFT ENT DOOR" EICAS message. We quickly identified pressurization remained normal. And the CA; with concurrence from me; decided we would be turning around at that moment. We executed a 180 degree turn and requested a descent to FL300 to start to try to get out of the turbulence. We did not [advise ATC] at this time. As we descended the EICAS message went off. The air was smoother at FL300 we asked the FA's to wake up the Relief Pilot and get him to the Flight Deck. When he did I then went to the back to inspect the doors. Both door handles were popped out of their detent with the doors still armed and after checking with the FA's they were comfortable with me pushing the levers back down I attempted to resecure the doors. They popped right back up out of the detent on both doors.I returned to the Flight Deck and communicated my experience in the back. At this point they informed me that after talking with Dispatch we were going to need to [advise ATC] for an overweight landing back into ZZZ. At some point before descending lower in an attempt to continue to burn fuel we attempted to start the APU and got a FAULT indication. As we got closer to ZZZ we were told XXR is closed and we had to use XXL. We decided to hold until we hit a weight of 210;000 lbs (12;000 lbs overweight) in order to get a landing distance number we were happy with for the shorter runway.During the hold we started slowing and deployed flaps 1. At this point we got a "FLAP/SLAT ELEC" STATUS message. While we learned this should not have any effect on the flaps deploying correctly we still took the precaution of upon leaving the hold slowing the plane and getting to at least flaps 20 around ZZZZZ for the ILS XXL.At around 1000 ft AGL we then got what we knew to be a recurring write up from the inbound flight of "MACH/STAB TRIM" EICAS message. At 500 ft AGL we received the same "L AFT ENT DOOR" EICAS message. We landed with Autobrakes 3; Full Reversers and let the autobrakes do their job. Upon exiting the runway we asked Crash and Fire Rescue to follow us to the gate and advised them; operations and ramp to stay clear of both aft doors in case of inadvertent slide deployment. The FAs notified us that on landing the door handle had moved to around the 12 o'clock position. They also requested that MX meet us at the gate to disarm the doors; we coordinated.As now we had Crash and Fire Rescue behind the plane we attempted to start the APU again. It gave us another fault. We advised ramp and ops we would need GPU power at the gate as we had no APU. Ramp gave us GPU power we shut down both engines. Then they advised us they must disconnect the GPU to get the jet bridge into position. After a passenger announcement we allowed them to disconnect and the plane only to be lit with the Emergency Lights. They got GPU power hooked back up; MX boarded the aircraft; then we turned of the fasten seatbelt sign and allowed deplanement. At some point during the turbulence one of the FA's in the back of the plane; had went to hang her handset up and it slipped and hit her head resulting in a knot. The crew did an excellent job putting all the pieces together; briefing properly and taking a methodical approach to get theplane to the ground safely while safeguarding for any potential threats that were introduced during the process."
Second reporter narrative
The event started while I was on my break in the crew rest seat. The Purser woke me up mentioning we are turning back to ZZZ due to an unsafe indication of both AFT doors handles. Before going back to the flight deck; I went to the back of the aircraft and gather information from the flight attendants and visually confirmed the handles were not in their normal horizontal positions.Back in the flight deck I received a brief from the captain and the first officer. The decision of returning to ZZZ and that [ATC was advised] with ZZZZ ATC. I helped run diversion checklist; overweight landing non normal and backed the crew up with communication and diversion planning.We elected to hold near ZZZ in order to bring the Gross weight of the aircraft down. This was to increase safety margins with the oversight landing considering the current runway in use in ZZZ at that time. 500agl final the L aft door open Eicas illuminated again. The landing was conducted safely. After Landin and clearing the runway; I spoke with the AFT FA and she mentioned that the handled had come up even more. The captain instructed me to tell them to move away from the doors until parked. Maintenance came onboard when we parked to disarmed the doors.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.