Posts 139,148.
Bad reporting, or misunderstanding of what the reporter was told. From my memory of ground engineering on DC9s and MD80s (nearly 30 years ago), the engineeer on the ground had to manually set the fuel valves for each tank. So if the captain wanted 10 tons bulk, I had to manually set 4250 for each wing with the other 1.5 tonnes in the centre. I think the MD80s had 4350 in each wing.
On later types like the Airbus, we just set the bulk fuel, and the system sorted out where to put the fuel.
This may have been what the reporter was supposed to have printed. The DC9 flight deck is pretty cosy for 2 let alone 3.