Quite funny that you are writing from Malta. We were forced to wake our VIP passengers, have them get dressed and into a bus, driven to the terminal and wait while we refueled!
We were told that if we had been an airline, we could refuel with pax on board!!!!
I pointed out that we same type is used as an airliner and so if we had 50 pax, they could stay on board, but 4-----with the same number of exits, wasa no-no!??
The handler was embarrassed, but the airport manager insisted, with the result, that I have not, and will never, use Malta as a tech stop.