Hi to all,
was travelling on a well known low cost carrier yesterday and noticed that they were refueling before all the passengers had deboarded..
i had been talking to a pilot friend recently and he had told me that a co pilot had reported the pilot for allowing fueling to take place while passengers were deboarding....
so who is right??
There are several issues that need to be addressed prior to refueling with passengers onboard. Regardless of whether they are disembarking, boarding, or simply "Onboard" it's considered "Refueling with Passengers Onboard."
1. The Airline must have procedures in place in their FOM (Flight Operations Manual) AND those procedures must be in accordance with the aircraft manufactures recommendations. Furthermore, those procedures must be approved by the Civil Aviation Authority having regulatory control over that specific airline.
2. The Airport must "Approve" fueling with passengers onboard. The airport can do this many ways; including, a "blanket" approval for all; a "Blanket" disapproval for all; or "Specific" approvals for individual airlines.
3. The Flight Crew, Cabin Attendants,
airline ground staff, and
airport staff MUST be fully briefed on the procedure - which is somewhat involved - and must be ready to act in the event of fire, leakage, spill, equipment failure, etc.
In my professional experience (28 years), unless the refueling with pax onboard is part of the normal operation for that specfic flight, it's more effort that it's worth to get this all set up. If it's a "one off" you're better off to suck up the delay than have to assemble this dog and pony show.
As an aside; it get's even more interesting with "Refueling with an engine running". Yes, that can also be approved!
