Bombardier Learjet Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 65; Flight Crew Total 3300; Flight Crew Type 1100
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft
On climb; I tried to start moving fuel forward with the gravity flow valve open and noticed that it didn't work. Then I tried the normal transfer valve and nothing happened; my last resort was the rapid transfer system and it didn't work either. I then tried to open the crossflow valve and nothing happened. I checked the circuit breakers and noticed the crossflow valve breaker was out. I asked my FO (First Officer) to start looking for an airport to land since we were not going to use our fuel from the fuselage tank. The airplane was not showing any indication of any of the fuel valves working; I notified my company of the incident while I was looking through the airplane manual to try to reset the circuit breaker. After I tried it once and noticed it didn't solve the issue; it kept popping out; I commanded my FO to notify ATC and initiated a descent and turn towards our closest suitable airport. Our fuel from the wings kept getting low and after great coordination with controllers we were able to get safely to the ground. Possible power surge changes in such an old and poor maintained airplane lead to crossflow valve to fail also causing other valves and indications to malfunction.
Air Taxi Flight Crew flying Learjet report fuel transfer malfunction during initial climb.