A319
Dispatch Dispatcher
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Distraction
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Company Policy; Manuals; Procedure
This was a maintenance ferry flight. This flight was moved to my desk in the middle of my shift. Upon working up this flight I pulled up the Dispatch City Pair Guidance; to find out the phone number to the fuelers. Specifically; I wanted to know how much fuel was on board so that I could work up the flight plan. I called the company which was listed as the fuelers and asked to see if they could find out how much fuel was on board. They told me they would look and call me back. They called me back and indicated that the tanks were empty; and wanted to know how much fuel we desired. I told them I was requesting 14.0 of fuel. The fueler said that they would take care of it. A little while later; I got a phone call from somebody and said that they were topping it off at 14.0; and had transferred fuel from another aircraft; and asked if I was OK with it. At the time I did not think it was an issue; but that lead to another series of problems.I was on the phone with Medlink handling an inflight issue; when the station called. Since I was in the middle of an inflight issue; I asked a co-worker next to me to answer the call. I can't say verbatim what the conversation was; but the Dispatcher who assisted told the station that they cannot transfer fuel from one aircraft to another. So while handling the Medlink call; I was also trying to find out the details of the fueling situation of this flight. The dispatcher who assisted sent the call over to [Maintenance Control] assumingly to defuel the aircraft. When I completed the Medlink call; I then focused my time on this flight and confirmed with the chief; that station should not be transferring fuel from one aircraft to another (possible contamination issues; etc). What complicated the issue was this was going on just prior to shift change.  The Ops Manager had canceled the original flight and made it a different flight number because of a crew issue.  I had to redo a whole new release and ensure the oncoming Dispatcher knew what was going on.On the new release; I put the comments 'Verify FOB (Fuel on Board) was not transferred from another aircraft'.  I also briefed the oncoming Dispatcher that I had withheld the ATC filing to ensure that the flight does not leave until we verify the origin of the FOB. The oncoming Dispatcher took the briefing; and was going to follow up to ensure the aircraft was defueled and fueled properly.
Dispatcher reported that an aircraft was fueled with fuel transferred from another aircraft; resulting in a policy violation.