How much fuel came out anyway?
One man's slight drip is another man's gush! A small amount of fuel venting is not uncommon at all - even if there has been no mistakes in the fuelling process - if it didn't I would be much more concerned - where within the fuselage was it collecting
Most people wildly overestimate the volume contained in a puddle - especially when the liquid involved is emotive. (people can swear there are gallons of blood at an accident - the body only contains 8 pints and you would be unlikely to see all of those on the floor - even in a fatality.)
On the airbus with old school CFM engined there is an allowed 'drip rate' of fuel from the engine before even calling an engineer. As soon as the engines are running this seals itself up - still alarming to the the uninitiated.
Problems occur if people with very little knowledge of mechanisms involved take it upon themselves to make critical decisions - how often would you overule a surgeon if you were witnessing an operation which looked like it was going wrong?
Sometimes it is frustrating that people refuse to believe that you know what you are doing. I remember re-performing performance calculations in front of someone to prove that he couldn't take his mate as a spare pax while hot and high in a helicopter (in the army). It was the only way he would shut-up! The fact we took 2 people the previous week meant that he knew better than me and that I was lying to him
(The fact that it ws nearly 10 degrees hotter and the baro pressure had dropped meant nothing to him).
Would you initiate an evacuation if you saw liquid pouring from the belly of an aircraft - would you feel silly helping people into ambulances when it was poited out that one of the crew has simply emptied the coffee down the sink instead of down the toilet?
While I have sympathy with those who are not comfortable in the air it seems ridiculous that 40 people chose not to fly on a perfectly safe aircraft (especially as 2 of the 3 ringleadrers seemed to have no problem
)
However good on Globespan for sorthing them out with flights - I can see absolutely no obligation for them to have done so. I assume those 43 pax all checked the tech log and the MEL to ensure that the aircraft was safe enough to operate home - since they have already proved that they are not willing to take the Captains word for it.