Refulling with passengers on board

[Jetset320]

EU OPS 1.305, FAR 121.570 and probably other legislation make a safety issue of refueling with passengers on board/boarding, and give guidance on preventative steps to be taken to preserve safety.

Whilst nothing in aviation is completely safe, one wonders whether the regulations are remnants of practices that posed a safety issue in days gone by (over-wing refueling?).

The latest guidance from Airbus on this subject is from 2007, and refers to 8 incidents since 1961 resulting from refueling.

As a result of the current regulations, some airports are unscrupulously capitalizing on this issue, and charging hefty fees for their staff to be on standby during refueling, as per their own regulation. This is quite unfair - and quite unnecessary.

Furthermore, whilst many airlines avoid refueling with passengers on board as a safety measure as per the spirit of the regulation, other airlines give no importance to avoiding fueling whilst boarding, which results in a competitive dis/advantage.

I guess my question is whether the regulations are still necessary with today's modern fuel high pressure hose coupling technology, together with other safety measures like remote shutoff switch etc. Does anyone have any statistics for the last 5 years on this subject?

[FerrypilotDK]

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.

[Jetset320]

You could have unfortunately been under the effect of a boot of "Ryanairitis"! Malta is one of the countries that doesn't charge for the fire service being on standby, however limits the number of simultaneous requests for this service. Probably you would have got permission if you waited a few minutes.

I suspect you request coincided with some of Ryanair's, who have a blanket approval for refueling with pax on board in Malta, whilst other airlines, including the national carrier have to seek permission each time, which, believe it or not is given subject to Ryanair's requirements.

Last month there was an absurd incident whereby an Air Malta flight applied and was given the go ahead to board while refueling, and just as the passenger coach arrived shipside, the permission was withdrawn as a Ryanair flight had in the meantime used its blanket permission! This is 32 degrees OAT!

Absurd - and hence my belief that these limitations are having commercial connotations, and I wonder about their necessity in today's high-tech scenario.

[Agaricus bisporus]

one wonders whether the regulations are remnants of practices that posed a safety issue in days gone by (over-wing refueling?).

I don't think you need to wonder, clearly it is.

Restrictions (eg fire truck present or the idiotic disembarcation described above are at best antiquated jobsworth and one suspects often job-justification and money mulcting schemes.

Usually a sign of a backward and stifling bureaucracy in my experience.