Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; General Maintenance Action
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure
After departure from SDF; climbing through 3;000ft we hit what I suspected to be wake turbulence. Immediately the airplane developed a violent vibration. When leveling off at 4;000ft the vibration became rhythmic; but slightly less violent with a pronounced oscillation. It was unusual and significant enough that both the First Officer (FO) and I felt like there was a possibility of aircraft damage and/or malfunction of some sort. We were still within a few minutes of the departure airport; so we performed an air return and precautionary landing. The FO [flew] the aircraft on the previous leg; and confirmed that the noise/vibration was a new development. We agreed it was significant enough to warrant a return for inspection by Maintenance rather than risk further damage or the creation of an emergency situation.
Beech 1900 Captain reported returning to departure airport after experiencing an unusual vibration that may have been related to an earlier wake turbulence encounter.