Narrative:

I began the day by placing a fuel order at xa:00 and then walked out to the airplane for a preflight inspection. I was flying that day with a pilot observer who was unfamiliar with the aircraft. As a result; I took extra time to go over additional details of the preflight inspection unique to the emb-500. A part of this inspection is to ensure that the fuel caps are secured and locked with a tactile/visual inspection.after 30 minutes had elapsed; the fuel truck had not yet arrived. However; my passenger for the flight did arrive early at xa:35. I discussed the fact that if he wanted to depart immediately; I had enough fuel to fly to the destination and would need to pick up fuel at the outbound station prior to returning. He agreed and I walked into the FBO to cancel the fuel order.while I was doing this; I was unaware that the fuel truck had arrived at my aircraft. The customer service staff radioed to the fueler to cancel the fuel order and he acknowledged the cancellation. After this; I walked to the aircraft; closed the door and the flight commenced.upon my arrival I commenced a post flight walk around and discovered both fuel caps from the left and right wing were missing. Apparently; the fueler had begun the fueling process and I was not made aware of this. While he had not pumped any gas into my airplane; he had removed the fuel caps from both wings. After receiving the cancellation; he simply brought the fuel hose back to the airplane and drove away; leaving my fuel caps off the airplane.the flight was completed safely and while no damage was done; there was a huge risk to the airplane as well as human lives.I had no reason to inspect the fuel caps a second time in 30 minutes as I had no reason to believe that any changes in condition had occurred. Had I known that any fueling activity had begun; I would have been obligated to re-inspect my fuel caps.the lack of communication from the fueler that he had in fact begun the fueling process caused a chain of custody issue with the fuel caps that in this case could have been catastrophic. In addition; a lack in following checklist procedures also contributed to the fuel caps not being put back on the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB500 Captain reported requesting fuel prior to departure. When the passenger shows up early the Captain decides to cancel the fuel request; but not before the fueler has commenced the task. The aircraft departs without fuel caps which is discovered during post flight.

Narrative: I began the day by placing a fuel order at XA:00 and then walked out to the airplane for a preflight inspection. I was flying that day with a pilot observer who was unfamiliar with the aircraft. As a result; I took extra time to go over additional details of the preflight inspection unique to the EMB-500. A part of this inspection is to ensure that the fuel caps are secured and locked with a tactile/visual inspection.After 30 minutes had elapsed; the fuel truck had not yet arrived. However; my passenger for the flight did arrive early at XA:35. I discussed the fact that if he wanted to depart immediately; I had enough fuel to fly to the destination and would need to pick up fuel at the outbound station prior to returning. He agreed and I walked into the FBO to cancel the fuel order.While I was doing this; I was unaware that the fuel truck had arrived at my aircraft. The customer service staff radioed to the fueler to cancel the fuel order and he acknowledged the cancellation. After this; I walked to the aircraft; closed the door and the flight commenced.Upon my arrival I commenced a post flight walk around and discovered both fuel caps from the left and right wing were missing. Apparently; the fueler had begun the fueling process and I was not made aware of this. While he had not pumped any gas into my airplane; he had removed the fuel caps from both wings. After receiving the cancellation; he simply brought the fuel hose back to the airplane and drove away; leaving my fuel caps off the airplane.The flight was completed safely and while no damage was done; there was a huge risk to the airplane as well as human lives.I had no reason to inspect the fuel caps a second time in 30 minutes as I had no reason to believe that any changes in condition had occurred. Had I known that any fueling activity had begun; I would have been obligated to re-inspect my fuel caps.The lack of communication from the fueler that he had in fact begun the fueling process caused a chain of custody issue with the fuel caps that in this case could have been catastrophic. In addition; a lack in following checklist procedures also contributed to the fuel caps not being put back on the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.