B737 flight crew reported three occurrences of uncommanded right rolls during cruise climb. Flight crew returned to departure airport.
Synopsis
B737 flight crew reported three occurrences of uncommanded right rolls during cruise climb. Flight crew returned to departure airport.
Narrative
While climbing out of ZZZ we experienced an uncommanded right roll of the aircraft while passing through FL230 that disconnected the autopilot. We recovered the aircraft and reported the event to ZZZ Center expecting wake turbulence. I engaged the autopilot and continued our climb without any further occurrences. Roughly 10 seconds after leveling off at FL 340; we experienced two more uncommanded right rolling motions. My hands were already on the controls; so the motion wasn't enough to disengage the autopilot. At this point; I transferred the controls to the FO and switched to Command B. I contacted dispatch and spoke with them about the occurrences and told them that I wanted to divert. We had a discussion about where to divert to and I decided that returning to ZZZ was the best solution. I then requested priority handling with ZZZ center; and we started turning the aircraft around to go back. I notified the flight attendants and gave them a briefing and then notified the passengers of our situation and our plans. We then started the descent back into ZZZ and transferred the controls again back to myself. The First Officer then ran the overweight checklist from the FM (Flight Manual) and verified that there was no other checklist for our situation. We received the overweight numbers from dispatch and set up for the approach. We coordinated with approach to roll the trucks after landing and performed a stable approach and smooth landing on runway XX. After landing; I let the aircraft slow itself as much as possible and disengaged the auto brakes at roughly 50 knots leaving the reverses out until about 40 knots. When sufficiently slowed to safely exit the runway; we exited and stopped the aircraft to have crash rescue ensure that our brakes were not overheating or catching fire. After being cleared by them; we returned to the gate without incident.
Second reporter narrative
During the climb out ZZZ and around FL230 the airplane rolled to the right and went into CWS (Control Wheel Steering) mode. We inquired with ATC about wake turbulence and was advised no heavy airplanes around. After reaching cruise about 10 minutes later it happened again but this time the captain had his hands on the controls. We switched to autopilot B and I took the flying duties. The Captain got to work by requesting priority handling to head back. We discussed ZZZ1; ZZZ2 or ZZZ. We decided to head back to ZZZ with the option to divert to ZZZ2 or ZZZ1 on the way back if needed. After the captain finished with his duties he took the controls back. We ran the overweight landing checklist and got the airplane ready for landing. We had an uneventful landing to runway XX and had fire crash and rescue inspect our brakes. We continued to the gate with no further issues.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.