Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft; Procedure
Maintenance advised that the fueler had requested help with a premature fuel cutoff while attempting to add fuel to the number two tank. The tank fuel gauge read approximately 3;400 LBS. Maintenance used an alternate method to check the fuel quantity in tank 2 and concluded the tank was already full. Maintenance and the fueler provided a fuel slip indicating full wing tanks and 12;000 LBS in the center tank. The number two tank gauge was placarded inoperative using MEL 28-10B and 28-06.On liftoff it was apparent that there was a fuel imbalance requiring three units of aileron trim for wings level flight. This indicated to us that the fuel load was incorrect and insufficient for the flight. Due to the excessive roll moment of the out of balance fuel load; an emergency was declared and we returned to land at [departure airport]. The aircraft was below max landing weight.Fuel measurements by alternate methods should be made with redundancy. In the future I will be personally involved in those measurements.
Air carrier Captain reported his aircraft was improperly fueled after apparent fuel quantity gauge failure; resulting in imbalance. Crew declared an emergency and returned to departure airport.