Reading the thread....
I am not surprised the "pond life" and the "sun readers" eventually went ballistic.
It started with...
""we were asked to unbuckle our seatbelts whilst the aircraft was being refuelled."" (did they say why?)
O.K professionals, why should a plane load of passengers unbuckle their seat belts while the plane is being re-fueled. (not a sun reader, maybe it is so if something goes wrong you can get out faster?) Worry factor 1.
""captain came on the intercom and announced that due to a faulty fuel filter "about half a ton" of fuel had spilled onto the tarmac and that we should get off while this was cleaned up."" Worry factor 2
O.K!!! now the pond life realise why they had to take their seatbelts off while re-fueling. so they could get off the aircraft faster when half a ton was spilled.
Fuel is dangerous stuff they now realise. No seatbelts on when re-fueling. Got that!
Fuel spill means they have to get off the aircraft while the spill is cleaned up. Pond life and Sun Readers are now pretty well educated in re-fueling dangers and fuel spills. They learn fast!
""The Captain came on to the tannoy and told us that the overflow of fuel seen from the wing was a normal occurrence in this kind of situation""
All of a sudden, fuel is nice, fuel squirting out of the wings is OK.
TWO lessons in fuel and re-fueling and even people dumb as a rock get the idea.
The fuel is supposed to be in tanks, not on the ground or squirting into the air.