Just to correct my story , it was determined that the first barrel pumped was Avgas because Ken smelled it and looked at the colour before putting the nozzle all the way in.
Anyhow , here is a post that should also make us all sit up and pay attention. It was in answer to the same story I told on another site.
enigma
Wow, Duke...
That last one hit a little too close to home for me....
About 4 years ago, I had my first flying job with Sundance Air, a 135 freight dog outfit in Denver. At one of the 0-dark-thirty show times I was a little sluggish in waking so my perception wasn't the most fine-tuned. I sluffed my way through the pre-flight thinking that everything was checked to my satisfaction. It wasn't.
It seems the Ronnie the Rookie was driving the 3rd shift fuel truck and hadn't fueled a Navajo yet. The "pristine" airplanes that we had weren't equipped with "100LL only" stickers by the fuel caps. Ronnie tried to jam the Jet-A nozzle in the 100LL hole and eventually decided that a slow, thin stream of fuel was the correct way to fuel the good ol' "Ho".
Seeing that the airplane had been in for maintenance, the fuel levels were quite low prior to getting the erroneous refuel. There was just enough 100LL in the bottom of the tank and the fuel lines to get me out to the runway and up to 60 knots before the engines quit, subsequently burning out the turbos and dumping thick, black smoke out the exhaust stacks. About 40 more knots and a "positive rate" would have seen me at the other end of the runway in a heap. Talk about dumb luck. I now watch the line guys rather closely when getting fuel. Lesson learned...
SK