A320
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Other / Unknown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors
Fuel truck leaking fuel onto ramp while fueling our flight; we called the company and the ramp and requested the fire equipment to be called out. The company overrode the Captains authority and canceled the emergency call for the fire equipment. After the First Officer completed the walk around he advised me that the fuel truck was leaking fuel into a five gallon bucket overflowing onto the ramp behind our right wing. He brought this to the fueler's attention and the fueler left to get someone. I advised the First Officer to call the Fire Department out... He called the company and ramp to advise them that we had a large fuel spill and to call out the Fire Department. I then proceeded up the jet way to have the boarding stopped. I told the agent to stop boarding because of the fuel spill. I then went down to the ramp and saw that the fuel truck was leaking. The puddle was around 30-40 FT in diameter. I told the maintenance man that we needed the fire company called out. He said that he had it under control. I went back up to the a/c and had the First Officer call the Company and ramp to find out where the fire equipment was. They replied that they are on their way. The agent resumed boarding without my consent. The agent came up and asked me if we were ready to close. I said we had a fuel spill. She said that it was taken care of. My First Officer again called the Company and requested the Fire Department and was told that they had cancelled the call to the Fire Department. He then asked them about the fuel spill; they said that only one gallon had spilled on the ramp; the First Officer replied 'No; a five gallon bucket was under the truck spilling over for ten minutes.' They then said five gallons had spilled. It was obvious that the company had no idea how much fuel had spilled. The fuel truck was moved from behind our aircraft out of view and it was still leaking onto the ramp. Prior to pushing after the doors were closed I called the Dispatcher and advised what had occurred to have this on record. I also advised the push crew we had a fuel spill behind our aircraft and he said we have it under control and that they are ready to push. We pushed off the gate right through a large puddle of fuel about 30-40 FT in diameter leaving fuel tire marks all the way back until we stopped. It was then we saw the same fuel truck fueling the aircraft on the next gate leaking fuel into a five gallon bucket all over the ramp. We advised Ground that the same truck that caused our fuel spill was fueling another aircraft and that they needed to call out the Fire Department. We were told by Ground that no one advised them about our fuel spill and that we had called company to have the fire equipment sent out. I feel that SOPs were not followed in this case. Also; the Captain's judgment and authority was over ridden by the company to cancel the call to the Fire Department. We are trained that safety is our number one priority. The company should have never canceled our call for the Fire Department this put all of us at risk.
Air Carrier Captain reports a leaking fuel truck to his company operations and to the Ramp Controller. No action is taken and the flight is loaded and pushed back through the puddle.